Open, work, shut

India is no stranger to mobile workplaces. And there is no dearth of innovative or ‘out of the box' thinking.

Walk into a court complex and you can see lawyers using parked scooters as desktops to prepare affidavits. On street corners, office areas and stations, parked bicycles convert into food carts in a few minutes, with extendable table-like panels for people to keep their plates and gorge on cholebhature , rajmachawal , kadhichawal , Amritsari paranthas , fish fries, biryani , South Indian fast food and, even good old Chinese food.

Hundreds and thousands of small-time businesses operate under the open sky in cities and towns.

At the low-end of the business spectrum, it is necessity and the daily struggle for livelihood that drives innovation.

With urban India bursting at its seams, a different kind of necessity — space — is driving design innovation at the upper end of the spectrum — the white-collar workplace. We have more and more corporates and multinatonals moving to satellite towns or suburban areas for lack of space and high rentals.

In this backdrop, in a well-thought out and seemingly practical design, Mumbai-based Planet 3 Studio, run by architect duo Kalhan Mattoo and Santha Gour Mattoo, has come out with a futuristic workstation, inspired by the legendary Swiss Knife. It can be folded and kept aside once work is done, leaving the space free for other purposes. The movable workstation was launched recently by Godrej Interio.

The Mattoos, graduates of the JJ School of Art, Mumbai, started Planet 3 Studio in 1998.

The idea was to basically work on the concept of creative utilisation of space, which is eco-friendly, aesthetically pleasing as well as user-friendly.

The Swiss Knife movable workstation, left to the imagination, does sound complicated at first. But the Mattoos say it is as simple as folding the Swiss Knife and keeping it away once you are done.

“The workstation has been made keeping in mind today's space constraints. So, when it is not in use, it can be folded and moved in one corner”, says Kalhan Mattoo. The essence of the concept is ‘plug and play'. “Offering mobile flexibility, this workstation can open, shut and move, facilitating multi-use of the space and various workspace arrangement possibilities. It is not just a workstation, it is an element of creativity to do up the office as and when you want,” says Santha.

On whether Planet 3 Studio has given a thought to patenting this innovative design, he says that “Out of the Box came up as an award winning idea at the IIID-Godrej Innovation 2007 — a furniture design competition aimed at encouraging Indian designers to challenge the status quo”. So, the rights remain with the company.

In any case, Planet 3 Studios has enough on its plate.

“Among our ongoing projects are a convention centre in Srinagar, Science Centre in Shirdi and Nashik, Karnala Resort and Heliopolis Club in Mumbai.”

Some of Planet 3 Studio's top clients include, Axis Bank, Mumbai, Ceat, Mumbai and Reliance Industries, Mumbai, Vidyalankar Institute, Mumbai, Gunnebo India, Thane, Mumbai, Dawnay Day India Land, Mumbai and T Crossover (Restaurant) in Bangalore.

So, while the Swiss Knife workstation may be an “open and shut' case for users, the Mattoos are looking at a newer and more innovative journey ahead in the world of design.

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