REFLECTIONS

The 167- year- old Victorian Mahogany bench is by W. Blackie from 1853. This bench was illustrated on page 337 Pictorial Dictionary of British 19 th Century Furniture Design by Edward Joy. Currently, this aged bench is with Sujit D Souza at Chennai who has a passion of collecting ancient furniture. The bench is made of Mahogany with a wonderful grain and patina and had an original cushioned seat, which was later removed sometime in the late 1890.

Colliers International India recently completed Fitout Design project LIVE ( Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship), a business incubator and entrepreneurship development centre of IIM Kozhikode set- up with the support of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The brief was exciting and became the starting point for us to explore the concept. The setup couldn’t have been better, in the midst of India’s one of the best business schools, centre of knowledge and verdant surroundings. The space is conceived as a blend of co- working and co- learning, by the sheer virtue of extraordinary setup. At the centre of LIVE are ideas. It aspires to attract idea- owners, entrepreneurs, investors, inspirers, mentors and researchers to create an eco- system that is conducive and reflective, enabling the ideas to make an impact on economy and society.

The space is designed on the concept of ‘ alone and together’. The architects took ‘ hive’ as the spatial planning principle. It is one of the popular concepts being used for classroom designs all over the world, in particular for the business schools, including Harvard. The concept was adopted with an aim to deliver a reconfigurable, usercentric and experiential space that will evolve and grow as per the user’s changing needs. To achieve a balance of ‘ me’ and ‘ we’ spaces and foster collective interaction, collaborative spaces have been placed evenly throughout the layout. The two exhibition spaces are with an aim to promote knowledge sharing and community engagement.

The colour palette is chosen deliberately to enhance the identity of LIVE. Red stands out in otherwise natural colour palette of wood grains, white and grey. A unique element in the space is black boards– inspired from conventional teaching setup, instead of white boards being used ubiquitously in today’s workplaces.