MICA (P) 207/12/2010

Five

Unilever’s brand in India Unified Diversity - Sensory Sensational

Credits

Interior Design: designphase dbaDesign Director: Joris AngevaareProject Director: Derek MacKenziePhotography: Fearghal Hendron

Unilever are a fascinating company. With over 400 brands being represented, and products as diversified as food,

personal, and home care, Unilever is one of the world’s greatest consumer goods companies.

Concept evolved from the designphase dba studio, is never a simple or aritary application of our designer’s good taste.

Apart from the obvious issues of space planning, practicality, ergonomics, flexibility and longevity of appearance, the emotional engagement of a client (staff, guests, visitors) will be more assured and resonate longer, if the creative response to a design brief actually means something!

For Unilever, two concepts were offered for their board to vote upon.

Both had equal validity and each was drawn from deep within Unilever’s DNA:

Sensory | Sensational

Hindustan Unilever is in the business of satisfying the senses; sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing.

HUL’s home ground should reflect this sensorial character. The interior should challenge and engage people to touch, smell, taste, listen and look at their environment.

Intriguing textures, engaging smells, arresting sights, ambient sounds, and tantalising tastes should come to life in a sophisticated way throughout the public and working spaces.

Unified | Diversity

The brand Unilever is made up of many different parts and people. The sum of these parts give it a strong overall identity, something which is read clearly in Unilever’s new Brand expression.

It is a wealthy company, rich in history, heritage, knowledge and ideas. Multi-cultural values are present and should be celebrated.

To bind all this together, we need a strong and well-considered framework. This framework however should not detract from individuality, allowing all people the freedom to express and invent.

Unilever’s brand in India, celebrates its 75th year! Coincidentally, Unilever’s brand identity, as one of the world’s latest and most successful FMCG (fast moving

consumer goods) companies undergoes a complete overhaul.

The recognition that this change was necessary, came from the identification and understanding of changing times, attitudes and mood of consumers worldwide. The baby boomer generation are no longer dominating consumer behaviour and are declining in influence of ‘future-thinking’. A new generation is arising with a different outlook, aspirations and lifestyles.

This generation “have more” than their predecessors! More opportunities, money, communication, technology, education, travel and exposure to international influence.They also have more choices and more competition. Despite economic hiccups and political skirmishes, the world is growing-all at once!

The concurrent ascendency of China and India are adding dynamism to world trade, and this is creating huge growth potential for clients like Unilever.

Along with the benefits of a more contemporary work-life, come some challenges never before experienced. Pressure on resources and human capital have never been greater. And the aggression of international commerce mean companies are required to do/achieve a great deal more for a great deal less.

Not surprisingly, India’s growth has precipitated a struggle for qualified staff. Keeping good people is an imperative. Attracting and keeping valued employees with higher and higher salaries, will inevitably become expensive and unsustainable. Many surveys have shown that money alone is not the ideal or only motivator.

Today employees are seeking greater fulfilment from their worklife and the quality of their workplace environment is proving to have a significant impact on morale and loyalty.

The concept of an employer as a caring entity, conscious and concerned about the state of mind and physical health and well being of those on its payroll, is not new. However, more than ever, the design and ergonomics of the workplace are becoming influential in the employees consideration of the differences between employers.

Unilever works hard to promote their own corporate culture and to provide a working environment which support not only the practicalities of accommodation, but also the values pronounced in their own stated tenets.

‘The company culture is informal but hightly professional.’‘Unilever is all about caring for and growing our people..’

The recent rebranding of Unilever worldwide, provides a clue to the scale and complexity of the process undertaken for their new Headquarters Campus in Andheri (Mumbai). In effect, Unilever centralized all of Hindustan Unilever’s activities in the one location. It was a “unification”. One corporate identity with one corporate culture, atitude and direction.

One of the most important considerations for designers working in places foreign to their main-stream business, is “adaptation to local conditions”. While this sounds

obvious, it is more than a superficial issue.

We have seen some very well known firms fall into the trap of presuming that interesting concepts evolved in their home country, will be universally applicable or as technically achievable in places like India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam or even Malaysia, as would be in their home country.

It is vital to understand both the Client’s own rhythm and standards for procurement, the products and materials available locally (along with their costs) and the limitations of the workforce within the country where the project will evolve.

New ideas and creative concepts will be welcomed by Clients through initial presentations. But the Client’s team can be severely challenged by specifications which require a heavy price to be paid for imported products or the lengthy sessions of training local contractors or installers.

The new, technically advanced, precisely engineered or sophisticated finishing of a desired specification by the designers, need to be carefully weighed against not only cost but the real benefits they will bring to client projects. An additional concern is the way in which these products will be handled, treated, tuned and maintained by the Client’s team or downstream maintenance personnel.

By contrast, working with local tradesmen can be very rewarding when their skills and techniques are celebrated through the design.

Another issue can be the language and level of education of local contractors and suppliers. It can be fine to translate workmanship descriptions on drawings, but if the contractor cannot read (in any language), the drawings will need to be self-explanatory. Also, a Client’s priorities in procurement need understanding and acceptance. As do local relationships that Client’s teams may have with trusted suppliers or contractors.

Without doubt, it is exciting to work in exotic locations! But the experience needs to be carefully considered and studied with an open, inquisitive and flexible mind, if disappointment on all sides is to be avoided.

Approximately 1,500 people were immediately accommodated within this new, Corporate Headquarters facility.

Unilever’s regional/national headquarters are contained within two, five storey high buildings. These are linked across an enormous, fully air conditioned street-scape, to four research and development facilities. In addition, there is an independent reception building, a fully enclosed sports and recreation facility, a learning centre, and 165 serviced apartments as elements of our Interior Design scope.

Working in collaboration with DEGW who provided the strategic planning for the development and Kiran Kapadia, the project’s famous Architect, Designphase were appointed the focal role of Interior Design Consultant for all of the built-in areas. The role of the Interior Designer included space planning conceptualisation and detailing for each of the many departments within the organisation as well as co-ordinating with all technical teams.

The winning concept of “Sensory Sensational” was selected because it was more “tantalizing” as a design motif and less “corporate” than the Unified Diversity theme. It was also less predictable and therefore open to interpretation wherever the sensory concept could be applied.

This gave rise to things like the deep shag pile, carpeted walls (which solved an acoustic issue) being a visual delight with their punchy colour and soft / rough texture.

Another example was the laminate details used for the desking and storage units. Although predominantly white, a close-up inspection of the various surfaces of each workstation will reveal that there are subtle, textural differences in sides, tops, doors, legs and edges.

These and many other designed elements were planned to provide a deeper, richer brand experience, less reliant on ubiquitous application of simple and pre-supposed graphic words and symbols.

Unilever’s new home in India is accredited with LEED Gold and GRIHA (2 star rating).

“Meaningful change will stimulate everyone’s ability to innovate and facilitate collaboration... A better work place, is a garden for growing a quality work-life disposition.”

Number of Work Positions: Over 1,500 with room to grow

Specialist Facilities: Brand Verandas,Food Court,Book Store, Convenience Store, Press and Media Centres, Laboratories,Gym and Sports Facilities,Crèche,

Floor Area:Campus: 800,000 ft2 Interior Scope: 450,000 ft2

Bar and Restaurant,Education Centre, Teleconferencing Facilities, Tele-presence Rooms,Hotel Accommodation,Long Stay Residence, Multipurpose Conference Hall,5 Storey High Public Air-Con ‘Street’.

www.designphasedba.comenquiry@designphasedba.com

Printed on 100% Recycled Cocoon 140gsm. Published by designphase dba private limited. Printed by Win&Win Printer.

Infinity Five

Workplace Agility

For the past two decades (and more) the term “Flexibility” has been entrenched into almost all “Corporate Office, Retail and Hospitality” Briefs and RFPs.

But relatively recently, (since 2008 or so), the term “Agility” has crept into the language of Clients, Project Managers and Designers as the new imperative .. particularly in the Corporate Sector.

For 20 years, “Flexibility” facilitated the ability of offices to grow and adjust, but 3 things are busy changing the statusquo:1. Technology just doesn’t need the same platforms it used to.2. People’s work aspirations and value systems are altering with gen ‘Y’ attitudes, work ethics and behaviour.3. The economics of sustainability are beginning to alter workplace culture, habits and contemporary practices.

For years, furniture manufacturers and facilities managers have been dazzled by systems furniture of all makes and manifestations. High creativity and refined engineering have produced a bewildering range of ergonomically elegant products which can be erected in no time, demounted in less and swung, rolled or carried into new configurations by office assistants with little or no need for muscle!

“Agility” however, deals with a new world. A vastly more technically enabled workforce who are more concerned with seamless connections (digital, voice or personal) than they are with the corner office, couch in their room or visual privacy.

An “Agile” workplace is “already ready” for demands which can change multiple times a day compared to the multiple times per annum of the “Flexible” world most of us grew up in.

As the work which is being done becomes more complex, the circumstances in which work is undertaken is at once simpler and more sophisticated.

The sophistication of an Agile Workplace refers to its ability to enable those within it both technically (connectivity) and personally (collaboratively).

Simplicity is driven by the less specific way in which the office worker is supported physically. In years gone by, this might have meant stripping things down to the lowest common denominator. Today it is more likely to mean providing the most appropriately comprehensive suite of services throughout the workplace. And then to have a space planning solution which will not only sustain organizational agility in current and foreseen circumstances, but provide for employee engagement through collaboration, communication and shared brand values.