Planning and Interior Design for a Major Securities Trading Office

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Sometime ago, I was approached by a businessman. He owned a successful securities trading company. Trading in all sorts of securities like stocks, bonds, commodities, metals. He had recently acquired some commercial office space for a major expansion. My task was to design a floor plan according to their requirements.

I visited the place for inspection. It was a large hall, with dimensions 45′ x 90′. I had to deal with a few existing columns, but it was decent.

Empty Commercial Space

 

I was given a few requirements, but it was still flexible. More requirements were to be added later. The building was already constructed, so external window locations were already fixed.

Basic requirements as laid down by the client were

  1.  Reception and Waiting Lobby
  2. Trading area with a capacity of upto 50 workstations
  3.  Lounge area for people meeting the CEO
  4.  CEO Cabin
  5.  CEO Rest room with attached bath
  6.  Conference Room for upto 10 people
  7.  Pantry
  8. Three private cabins for directors
  9. Three more cabins for managers
  10. Two discussion rooms for their sales team
  11. Server Room
  12. Common toilets

So, I began working on the drawing, and after many hours of hard work, and many revisions, I got my first drawing ready which had to be presented to the client for further deliberation.

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Climate change and energy depletion | Sustainable Development

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Moving towards the Sustainable World!

Is anyone of you fond of the concept of Sustainability? Well, to be really honest, people just do not want to consider sustainability a good alternative for the energy crisis we are in.

Designers are struggling so hard to embed the concept of sustainability into people’s minds. Now, it is high time we start aiming at sustainability. All of us are pretty much aware of the fact that we will not be able survive if we don’t consider sustainable options for our future survival. It is just that people find it really difficult to get out of their comfort zones and make decisions that would make a difference to the world.

Climate is a grave problem. When we have overwhelming problems ahead of us, we tend to seek simple answers. Now when we think about the climate change, it is important to figure out the major cause behind it. Let us have a look at the sources of emissions that are causing climate change.

So, where are the emissions coming from?

The emissions are coming out of tailpipes and smokestacks, so basically the emissions are coming out because of the burning of fossil fuels. So, we need to figure out how we could replace fossil fuels with an alternative source and clean source of energy that would not be hazardous to the life on earth.

And the fact is we do need clean energy in order to get out of the energy crisis that we are already in.

Our world is rapidly urbanizing. In fact by mid century, the world population will be 8 billion or more. This is one of the major problems why we are heading towards energy crisis with such great speed.

The amount of energy that will have to be generated for the kind of lifestyle we have at present in the west will be astonishingly difficult. Generating clean energy is extremely difficult and it is possible that we may not be able to generate as much as clean energy that will be required on our rapidly urbanizing world.

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Where should Sustainable Development begin first?

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Beginning of Sustainable Development in the West

Development is often discussed in relation to developing countries but in fact, it is a concept which relates to all parts of the world at every level, from individual to global tranfromations (Potter etal., 1999) Development is something to which we all aspire. Ideas about the best means by which to achieve our aspiration and needs are potentially as old as the human civilization.

World Map
World Map

Here are are a couple questions that we need to ask ourselves. I did it and answered them all. Now it is your turn to answer.

Why are we always talking about the developing countries in terms of sustainable Development?

Sustainable development is not just a concept for developing nations, it is majorly derived for the developed nations because people in the west have the strength, money and power to afford the kind of lifestyle that requires heavy intensive use of energy.

Developing nations are constantly imitating the west. Why exactly are we so worried about people in the developing world regarding their use of resource? Are we scared that in their process of imitating the west, they would start utilizing the same amount of resources that the west uses? That is a scary thought indeed!

25% of the population of the world has used up more than 50% of the energy resources of the planet. That is definitely something to worry about.

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Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)

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MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) is responsible for the formulation of MUTP. It envisages investment in suburban railway projects, local bus transport system, construction of new roads, building bridges, pedestrian subways and traffic management activities.

World Bank assists MMRDA to help bring about improvement in traffic and transport system in Mumbai.

WHY IS MUTP necessary?

Mumbai is a metropolitan city. The city faces innumerable problems such as traffic, transportation, commuting due to inadequate infrastructure and other facilities. Lack of wider roads or new roads has created chaos in the city of Mumbai. There are constant traffic jams because of slowed vehicular traffic causing excessive pollution and congestion. The problem of parking problems is huge. The government has taken many attempts to solve the issue of road congestion but has not been very successful in achieving the goal. MUTP will give a new vision towards controlling and development of smoother and better transport systems in Mumbai.

MUTP Partners

  • Government of Maharashtra
  • Indian Railways (IR)
  • Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
  • Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation
  • Brihanmumbai Electric supply and Transport

Problems with MUTP (Mumbai Urban Transport Project)

The government needed land for the execution of the project. So they started acquiring land by moving the land encroachers. In return, government provided the slum dwellers with houses (low cost housing) in another distant area.

The slum dwellers had to go through a number of problems. People went on a hunger strike to catch the attention of the government to fulfil their demands.

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