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Direct Dialogue Initiatives

Interior · Pune

Direct Dialogue Initiatives: An office for people who think better when they can choose where to sit: terracotta that cools the air, timber that grounds, denim that softens, and a different posture for every kind of work.

An office for people who think better when they can choose where to sit: terracotta that cools the air, timber that grounds, denim that softens, and a different posture for every kind of work.

The brief was a low-cost conversion of a three-bedroom home in Pune into an office, where people would work long hours. So the design was proposed around one thing: the wellbeing of the people inside it.

Most offices give everyone the same thing: a desk and a chair, nine to five. This one starts from a different idea, that people think better when they can choose where to sit, and how. Environmental psychology backs this up: variety, choice and a place to withdraw ease fatigue and stress over a long working day.

The office is seven small spaces, each a different way to work, to rest, to talk.

A welcome corner, with a denim bean bag, soft pouffes and a low table, for waiting, pausing or gathering. A high workstation, where you can stand and work, or sit high on a wooden chair with your back straight. A low table for Japanese-style meals, sitting on floor cushions. A corner for putting your legs up, with bean chairs, for relaxed, half-formal conversations. A solitary space, where one large bean bag turns into a bed, for a break from everything. A swing chair in denim, left uncushioned on purpose, so no one stays too long and everyone goes back to work. And a formal table, with ergonomic chairs, for the meetings that need focus.

The materials do some of the work too. Cool blue denim, upscaled from jeans, brings calm, and a playful way of seeing things as what they could be. Wood grounds you, and with plants, brings a little of nature indoors. And terracotta, made with specially trained artisans, brings the earthy smell of rain. In a hot, dry city like Pune, it also cools the air and keeps it a little humid.

The aim is simple. An office that is not just nine to five, where people choose to stay, to grow with their work, and to find the position, and the mood, that suits the task.

Client: Direct Dialogue Initiatives, Pune. Design: Mu.S.Ex.

Pictures

An office built so people can choose how they work: a high desk, floor cushions, bean chairs, a swing and a meeting table, each in its own small room.
An office built so people can choose how they work: a high desk, floor cushions, bean chairs, a swing and a meeting table, each in its own small room.
The high workstation: stand at a wood-topped desk on terracotta, or sit high on a wooden chair with a straight back. Working side by side, never stuck in one position.
The high workstation: stand at a wood-topped desk on terracotta, or sit high on a wooden chair with a straight back. Working side by side, never stuck in one position.
Legs up: soft denim bean chairs and pouffes on a patchwork-denim rug, for conversations that stay relaxed.
Legs up: soft denim bean chairs and pouffes on a patchwork-denim rug, for conversations that stay relaxed.
Japanese dining: sit on the floor at a low timber table for lunch, a break or an unhurried meeting, with a wooden bench along the wall.
Japanese dining: sit on the floor at a low timber table for lunch, a break or an unhurried meeting, with a wooden bench along the wall.
The formal workspace: a solid timber table on a terracotta base, with ergonomic chairs, for the meetings that need focus.
The formal workspace: a solid timber table on a terracotta base, with ergonomic chairs, for the meetings that need focus.
A denim swing chair, left deliberately uncushioned: a short pause, never a place to settle in. A bean bag and a pouffe beside it for a longer rest.
A denim swing chair, left deliberately uncushioned: a short pause, never a place to settle in. A bean bag and a pouffe beside it for a longer rest.
Seven spaces, each a different way to sit, think and talk: terracotta, timber and denim underfoot and at hand, with plants between.
Seven spaces, each a different way to sit, think and talk: terracotta, timber and denim underfoot and at hand, with plants between.

See it in the design corridor →