The IGT garment showroom showcases the way architect Kapil Gupta can transform a small, industrial space into a visually stunning creation full of free-wheeling spaces.
The main preoccupation of architect Kapil Gupta, of Contemporary Urban, is the ways in which he can deal with the congestion and claustrophobic feel of a city like Mumbai, and effectively use small spaces to create contemporary interiors that are also cutting-edge space-savers. “All my work tries to engage the ideas of the city and translate those impulses into interesting projects,” he says.
Evidence of this is at the office-cum-showroom of IGT, a garment export company, located in a rundown industrial estate in the middle of a crowded neighbourhood of Lower Parel, central Mumbai. Since it is an export company, it is often visited by their European associates. “The brief was to create a space which would appeal to their international clientele. It had to be modern, yet comfortable,” reveals Gupta, “for people who work here for long hours.”
The entire space was planned around 3 pods, each of which looks like a ruptured cell and faces the entrance. These ruptured cells are actually rooms, used for displaying the garments. This means, when you enter the lounge area, you do not see a single piece of garment on display. There are no formal divisions, and spaces flow seamlessly into one another. The seamless white floors have been made using epoxy resin - a self-levelling material. “The office-cum-showroom doesn’t feel like a typical garment showroom,” Gupta points out. “There is a sense of openness.”
The pods have been clad with green corrugated metal, and then re-clad with translucent acrylic, an inch-and-a-half apart. “Because of the curvature, it creates a feeling of verticality,” asserts Gupta. “The acrylic blurs the lines, so when you move across the curve, the metal and the mirror surface blend into each other.”
The lounge is a large area, with a white-and-black curved sofa and a bar unit with a built-in refrigerator. The white-and-black double false ceiling looks like a wave. The roof has been acoustically treated to keep out the noise generated by the printing machines on the floor above. Says Gupta, “Every edge, every right angle has been rounded and softened. The pods appear as if they are emerging from the floor itself.”
The synthetic quality of the space helps to differentiate the inside from the outer rough, industrial world.
