Employee Engaging Spaces-Booking.com | M Moser Associates
M Moser Associates completed the design for the Booking.com offices located in Mumbai, India.
M Moser has cultivated a long-standing relationship with Booking.com having worked on numerous global projects with them over the years. As the design partner for their new Mumbai office, we were eager to develop this relationship even further.
Considering Booking.com’s core design objectives for this project and the desired experience for end users and industry partners, M Moser was tasked with designing and building an engaging space for its work force and industry partners that would capture the essence of the local culture and facilitate social interactions in the workplace.
Mumbai is a city of stark contrasts woven into an exceptionally diverse urban fabric. M Moser’s conceptual approach involved the formation of distinct themes representative of Mumbai culture, and staging them within a spatial context. Out of this was formed an imaginative journey showcasing a day in the life of a ‘Mumbaikar’, reminding end-users of the rich, multi-layered ethos that thrives within their global city.
Booking.com’s new 9,500 SF office in the heart of Central Mumbai’s business district is sub-divided into various ‘themed’ zones that address specific cultural and social identifiers that essentially define Mumbai. A sequential journey begins from the common areas of the reception, which showcases a typical street market highlighted by authentic novelties such as an ornamented ‘auto-rickshaw’, to the cafeteria featuring bespoke ‘cutting chai glass’ chandeliers.
Towards the interior, the hard spaces are fabricated by re-purposed containers, inspired by current high-rise proposals using containers to resolve high-density population housing in the city. Materials were localized wherever possible, and presented with an overall tactile and raw patina.
The smaller meeting rooms are furnished with blown-up photographs clicked by the Booking.com employees of destinations visited. This unique feature adds a personal touch to the design as well as blurs the line between work and passion. The built-up areas around the open office including the meeting rooms and offices symbolize popular holiday destinations that echo the spirit of exploration and adventure.
Tying together the visual tapestry, are the impactful ‘Grunge’ super graphics of Bollywood and cricket stars are dispersed throughout the office, resonating ‘larger than life’ – a phrase commonly associated with movie and sports celebrities in India. The graphics also weave together an ‘organic’ collage that represents the multifaceted culture of Mumbai using themes like architectural relics and the Hindi alphabet as an art form.
The new Booking.com Mumbai office took 60 days to design and construct. To maintain the short timeline, M Moser’s strategy was to form a streamlined project management system, fine-tuning milestones and ensuring the client approval process for each milestone kept to program.At the same time, we were vigilant of monitoring our procurement process to enable smooth transition from one phase to the next.
Booking.com’s new Mumbai office is a reflection of what the brand aspires for on a global platform – a workspace that facilitates employees’ productive ability while allowing them to feel like a part of the local culture and the city they call home.
M Moser successfully achieved this by incorporating the quintessential Mumbai city life into the workspace through carefully chosen elements and artfully create a visual journey from beginning to end.
FACT FILE:
Designer: M Moser Associates
Design Team: Ryan DCunha, Antonis Panayides, Poonam Kothare, Tofique Faras, Farooq Shaikh, Uma Shirodkar, Sayed Badruddin
Photography: Purnesh Dev Nikhanj
Client:Booking.com
Size:9,500 sqft
Year:2018
Location:Mumbai, India
Industry:Travel
Source: Office snapshots
