SJK Architects’ new office fosters a new way of functioning

It is quintessential Shimul to be so practical about something that was both incidental and essential to the firm. The evolution of spaces went hand in hand with a career that has objectively established her as one of the best architects in India. Her projects, spanning factories to residences and hotels, are peppered across the country, and the studio has garnered dozens of awards and citations. Recently, as an acknowledgement of the role of her associates in its success, the firm SJK Architects became a partnership of four: Shimul, Vaishali Shankar, Sarika Shetty, and Roshni Kshirsagar. 

It was then a collective aspiration to occupy an office that better represented the sort of firm it is today. The quartet’s dream location in Mumbai was the art and heritage precinct of Colaba, which is a quintessential Maximum City neighbourhood of chaotic urban beauty, filled with hotels, art galleries, hip restaurants and coffeeshops. But then it was Covid, the phenomenon that broke our illusion of office-bound 9 to 5 work culture, that created an opportunity for SJK to settle down into a new space, which they found in September 2021.

BEGINNINGS

The office rarely sees all 30-plus employees at the space together at the same time, since the practice adopted a hybrid model of functioning back in 2020. Vaishali, who has been with the firm since 2000, says the pandemic and new style of working taught them to function with a healthy dose of mutual trust. “It isn’t about efficiency or saving time, it was a leap of faith,” she says. Faith backed by new systems to cope with an online-offline model. The team now has what they call a virtual ‘standup’ via Zoom in the morning and evening to check in on one another, while time at the office is kept aside for discussions about bottlenecks, client visits, and for fostering office culture among the staff, so deliberately followed because without it, the essence of the firm would be lost. Sarika, who joined this practice as a 21-year-old intern back in 2001, says the firm manages to evolve by adopting new technology learnings from young talent that join. And then combine that with organisational processes and a strong sense of culture that’s translated through simple activities like shared meals and stories. “It is important so that new people joining don’t feel lost and left wondering what’s in it for them,” says Sarika.

The Beautiful Homes team filmed the SJK office on a Friday; by lunchtime there’s a buffet of homemade foods on the central meeting table, an online client meeting is taking place in the office’s only closed-off meeting room, people are at their work desks while others are chatting around the food. The open windows are allowing in the unfiltered sounds of the neighbourhood along with the sticky humid heat. Some folks are planning to get some coffee at the Kitchen Garden coffeeshop down the street after lunch, and there’s going to be a Friday get-together at the office later that evening. A new space and location offering a group of colleagues new ways to work and bond together.

All images by Andrew Fernandes