Shibori Office

Design
Philosophy

The site stands at a corner junction and will eventually enjoy the widest road of the city. It is surrounded by prime educational institutes and hi-tech office buildings. Light is everywhere. Its dynamism and incredible ability to transform any space throughout the day by the drama it creates in conjunction with architectural features are unmatched. In this particular case, the epiphany was the rays of light flowing in through the holes in a tin roof of a structure at the site. The dotted effect of the sunlight had a powerful effect on that space, and we set out to harness a little bit of that power.

The result was a perforated built fabric that was permeable to sunlight. The dots turned our mind to Shibori, the Japanese resist dyeing technique characterized by circles and circular forms. Spatially, the circles/cut-outs are actually a perforated entrance/envelope which welcomes sunlight and creates patterns that enact a powerful drama through the day. The gradation of punctures is strategic: the larger cut-outs are at the bottom and the smaller ones are at the upper part to allow the sunlight to come in a controlled, comfortable manner. In tandem with sunlight, materials, textures, and colour play their part, too, in the narrative.