The interior design concept for the Skymet weather new office at Pune is the genesis out of the project Mahavedh - a public private partnership project between Skymet Weather and Government of Maharashtra which is based on the principles of sustainability. The project Mahavedh works on the AWS – Automatic weather station which works on the solar energy and provides farmers with real time weather alerts and advisory.  Being a PPP project, we were given a clear mandate to keep the capital expenditure as minimum as possible. The project brief was to provide two director’s cabins, meeting room, training cum conference room, open workspace with 26 executive workstations (17 Operations, 9 Quality Control), Lab with four Workstations, Reception, Visitor lobby, Pantry, Server room, Restrooms and utility spaces. 

Our design focuses to create a “sense of belongingness” which fosters the relationship of the weather company and the farmers/agri-industry which is its primary customer. To achieve this we have used materials like bamboo, cane, jute, seamless cement floors etc. We have focused to create an ambience which they can easily relate to, in a contemporary setting. These elements are organized in a way that they holistically create a nice and aesthetically pleasing work environment and are welcoming to its consumers as well.

The office has a clear zoning of the public areas as you enter from the main staircase. The reception lobby with its feature wall creates a sense of arrival and has a welcoming entry. The main office is on the right of the entry lobby and has a secured entry. The main office layout was designed in a way so that all the workstations receive natural light. The executive cabins are placed on one side of the office and have partitions of glass and bamboo which enables the natural light to filter in the open office. The meeting and conference room can be directly accessed from the reception lobby. In a small office, the conference and its furniture was designed as a multifunctional space which could act as a training center, lunch or a social space for office get together. 

Lighting design and ideas have been incorporated to the office spaces which add to the experience of the space. All the light fixtures have been designed with bamboo and cane wood. The reception feature wall, entry partition, bamboo tube lights and the pendant lights adds to the unique ambience of the office. The toilet wall with the fixtures has a tile cladding up to the cill level. The upper part of the wall is cladded with chic and bamboo and has a wrought iron mirror with bamboo pendant lights from the top.

The false ceiling of the open office and the conference space are designed with chic mats which redefine the space volume and adds to the visual interest due to its texture, form, colour and spacing. The conference room flooring is done with carpet tiles for acoustic reasons however the overall office has a seamless red colored floor reminiscing of the traditional red oxide floors.

Sustainable green practices were followed to reduce energy & transportation cost. The entry lobby and the open office was done in-situ concrete floor for durability and seamless character. The project also tries to revive local culture by using Chic mats and bamboo, both of which have high recycle value, and are intrinsic to the local culture of the region. Bamboo was used in the partitions of the executives’ room, reception table and also for the light fittings so as to promote craft and workmanship.  To use environment friendly materials, the signages were printed on vinyl and conventional metal and plastic signages were avoided. Cane wood furniture with high recycle value was used to create the waiting area & meeting room furniture.