Monsanto

The whimsical rhetoric of Monsanto, a food solutions company, situated in suburban Mumbai, takes you to the world of dreamlike imagery often seen in children’s storybooks. The office features bright shades of orange, rust, red, blue and green in every niche and turn along with motifs of butterflies, beetles, snakes and other such creatures on the floor. The design is an outcome of collaboration between Architect Hafeez Contractor, Monsanto’s Global Planning and Design Department (GP&DD), textile expert Jill Bunn and Deanne Beckwith from furniture designers Herman Miller. The project also became a truly participative exercise with the company’s GP&DD carrying out a survey and one-on-one conversations with each employee to determine their needs and expectations. The aim was to create an ambiance far removed from the conventional work place. Small terraces encompass the L-shaped 2,700 sq mtr office and the planning of the workstations ensures a good view of the terrace garden. The design gets rid of enclosed cabins and replaces them with open discussion areas and informal meeting rooms, while dedicating some enclosed rooms for conferences and similar activities that demand privacy. A straight line is hard to perceive in an office where everything from the ceilings to the walkways to the bookcases are sinuously shaped. Colours are used to signify the different spheres of function – blue for Human Resources, green stands for Marketing, yellow for General Business and Strategy and red is marked out for Finance Department. Passages connecting departments double up as common business centres. Black granite inlaid with floral motifs form the informal meeting rooms. A bit of privacy is afforded to these meeting rooms due to a wall of glass blocks on one side and floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of the terrace gardens on the other side. The gym, a meditation room, a library, refreshment centres and a lunch room are programmes derived from the suggestions given in the opinion poll. Partitions between workstations, canopies over computer screens that cut off glare and other upholstery showcase an imaginative use of Indian fabrics like Lucknow chikan and shadow work, Punjab’s phulkari, South Indian silks, Rajasthan’s bandhani and applique work from Orissa. Artisans from Mahabalipuram, Jaipur, Jodhpur and other parts of India have created a variety of artefacts. The talents of the artisans are apparent in the terracotta animal figurines, carved antique pillars on the terraces, the delicate floral inlay work on the flooring, the puppets that cheer up the curved alcove and the occasional inlaid insects, butterflies, frogs, beetles and turtles that stray the walkway.