Studio pomegranate had, in 2016, spent days visiting and studying the markets of Bombay. Kalbadevi, CP tank, Zaveri Bazaar etc. The city has pockets of this central area earmarked to either particular trades, or with shops selling a particular commodity. One could find a building with a shop on the ground floor, and the owner and employees living above it. Conquest Steel and Alloys is one such business, dealing in ferrous and non-ferrous metals. They are a Marwari family that has dealt in the same material for three generations. They now trade steel across the world, and live in the high rise above this first floor office space.
Traditional metal trade uses rods and pipes; stacked on a metal rack. The owners of these establishments would set up a chair, and weighing scale for themselves in the racks. Walls are left bare, ceilings untreated. The focus is on the material to be sold. The only exception to this would be any kind of addition for comfort, a pillow, or a board to lean up against; coloured in a bright colour.
The space is 800 sq.ft, with a full size window at the North-West, walls on all the other sides, and a large column in the centre holding up an even larger looking beam. The first move was to focus on the material at hand- Steel; bend, cut, shear, pull, stretch, rust, patinate, paint, hold, use as a holder, and any other use we could find of it. The walls remain bare; made with white lime plaster, and a thin marble powder. The ceiling is untreated. Any additions are in colour, with a specific property attributable to each. The studio has experimented with the effects of chemicals on steel to bring about colour patination, Ferric Nitrate- Yellow; Allowing rust on weathering steel patinates to a beautiful Rust; Extreme heat and oxygen gives you a brilliant blue. These experiments come in as colour on the partition walls introduced in the space. The rest of the walls are white. The floor is cast without seams or joints, and curves up to the walls. This prevents furniture from brushing up against them. The ceiling is left exposed, and only past the beam is a false ceiling to hold lights. Tables are made with solid timber, without treating the edges, and leaving them as cut out of the tree. Cabinet doors are plain plywood. Studio pomegranate designed the luminaires and switchboards using weathering steel . Transparent partitions are made with the proportions of the trader’s racks. A sun shade is made with expanded steel mesh outside the window, and hangs off the custom steel brackets for the chajja. Art is added in in the form of photographs shot by Pranav while working with the client on other projects. The sculpture in the office also shows off the versatility of steel by bending, and folding an expanded mesh to cast shadows on the wall.
Project team:
Pranav Naik, Shweta Chhatpar, Palak Babel, Nasir Baig, Nisar, Imran, Bharat Panchal.
Architecture+Design 