# Corporate Office Design, Noida: An Automotive Workplace with Staff Dining

> Our concept design for the Noida office of an automotive components manufacturer: a ground-floor reception, then one long first floor that runs from the boardroom and leadership cabins, through open-plan workstations and a war room, to a staff dining hall with its own kitchen. The company's products, drawn as line art, are the decoration.

## The brief

A new office in Noida for a manufacturer of automotive components. One building, two
levels: a ground-floor arrival with reception, and a single long first floor that had to
hold everything else: the boardroom and leadership cabins, the engineering and commercial
teams, meeting rooms of several sizes, the IT and power rooms, and a dining hall with its
own kitchen.

Two audiences use this office. **Customers, OEM buyers and auditors** form a view of the
company from the reception, the boardroom and what is on the walls. **The people who work
here** need long, productive days, quick daily reviews and a proper lunch. The design
gives each audience its own route through the building.

## A long floor, planned as a sequence

The first floor is long and narrow, so the plan reads as a journey from one end to the
other rather than a ring around a core:

| Zone | Holds | Why here |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Arrival (ground floor) | Reception desk, waiting lounge, product display, mandir niche by the entrance | The only part a casual visitor sees; the stair takes invited guests up |
| Leadership end | Boardroom behind a cut-off lobby, waiting area, a run of private cabins, conference rooms | Visitors reach it from the stair without crossing the work floor |
| Working floor | Open-plan workstation bays, team cubicles, war room, informal discussion zone | The middle of the plan, with daylight on both long sides |
| Support core | Server room, UPS room, record room, pantry, toilets, along a connecting passage | Grouped so services run in one spine, not across the floor |
| Dining end | Staff dining hall, servery, kitchen pre-preparation, dish and pot wash, handwash | Furthest from the boardroom, beside its own service stair |

Three stairs serve the floor: the arrival stair from reception, a central stair in the
middle of the plan, and a service stair at the kitchen end. Exit routes for the final
layout are set against NBC 2016 Part 4 at the drawing stage.

## Making the brand the architecture

The most visible design move is also the cheapest to change. Instead of logos everywhere,
**line drawings of the company's own products** (connectors, switches, instrument
clusters and the vehicles they go into) run across the feature walls of the waiting area,
the workstation bay, the discussion zone and the dining hall. Real parts sit in lit
display niches at reception and on the main office wall.

The rest of the palette is deliberately restrained so those drawings carry the identity:

- **Sage and olive** on cabinetry and focal walls
- **Mauve and cappuccino** on selected joinery, seating and toilet cubicles
- **Green and grey Kota stone**, laid in diagonal stripes on the work floor and dining
  hall, and as borders that frame the boardroom and reception
- **Black steel and satin metal** for trims, rails and the stainless corner guards that
  protect every column and wall end from trolleys and chairs

The exposed steel roof structure on the first floor is left visible and painted dark, with
linear lighting hung below it. That keeps the volume of an industrial building, which suits
an engineering company better than a dropped ceiling would. Enclosed rooms get a grid
ceiling for acoustics and services.

Related: [Kota stone](/materials/kota-stone) ·
[flooring systems](/services/interior-fit-out/flooring-systems) ·
[office lighting design](/services/interior-fit-out/office-lighting-design) ·
[automotive and engineering](/industries/automotive-and-engineering)

## The leadership end

**The boardroom** is a long room, 9,167 × 4,425 mm on the drawing, with eight chairs a
side and one at the head. A backlit panel frames the screen wall, a suspended linear frame
lights the table, and a green Kota border sets the table zone into the floor. The glazed
side is frosted at eye level; the outer wall has windows.

**The cut-off lobby** sits between the open office and the boardroom: two doors in
series, with access control at the inner one. It stops sound and sightlines carrying into
the room, and it costs only a few square metres.

**The cabins** (3,300 × 2,950 mm and similar on the drawing) each hold a desk, two
visitor chairs and a full-length storage credenza, with a pin-up or display panel on the
back wall. The fronts are glazed with a frosted band, so the cabins stay part of the floor.

Related: [glass partitions and doors](/services/interior-fit-out/glass-partitions-and-doors) ·
[acoustic design for offices](/services/interior-fit-out/acoustic-design-for-offices) ·
[glass partitions: fire, acoustics and privacy](/blog/glass-partitions-fire-acoustic-privacy-three-questions)

## The working floor

The open-plan bay runs down the middle of the building with daylight from both long
sides. Storage units with planters on top form the spine between desk rows, which gives
every bank a boundary without a partition. **Team cubicles** suit managers who need a
visitor chair but not a door.

The **war room** is a small, plain room with whiteboards on both side walls and a screen
at the end, for the daily production and quality review. A separate **informal discussion
zone** (7,512 × 4,400 mm), with a sofa, air hockey and foosball, sits between the work
floor and the dining end, so noise stays away from the desks.

Related: [workstation density](/glossary/workstation-density) ·
[turnkey office fit-out](/services/interior-fit-out/turnkey-office-fit-out)

## Staff dining with a kitchen that works

The dining hall fills the far end of the floor: long rows of four-seat tables, the
servery at the end wall, and the same Kota stripes and product murals as the office, so
it feels like part of the workplace, not a separate canteen.

Behind it, the kitchen is planned as a one-way flow:

1. **Pre-preparation and landing** (8,893 × 4,000 mm on the drawing), beside the service
   stair, so raw material arrives without crossing the dining hall. The drawing allows for
   a chapati machine and dough kneader.
2. **Cooking and servery**, facing the hall.
3. **Dish and pot wash**, with a pass-through hatch from the dining side.
4. **A handwash area** before the hall, with a long counter of basins.

Related: [pantry and cafeteria fit-out](/services/interior-fit-out/pantry-and-cafeteria-fit-out) ·
[factory canteen and amenity block planning](/blog/factory-canteen-and-amenity-block-planning) ·
[industrial canteen design for 200 seats](/our-designs/industrial-canteen-design-200-seat-workers-dining)

## The rooms nobody photographs

A good office plan is also judged by its back-of-house. Here the **server room**, **UPS
room** and **record room** sit side by side on the connecting passage (1,325 mm wide on the
drawing). They are separate rooms because their needs differ: the server room needs
cooling, cable trays and restricted access; the UPS room has its own ventilation and heat
load. The pantry and the ladies' and gents' toilets share the same services spine.

Related: [server room in an office: what to settle first](/blog/server-room-in-an-office-what-to-settle-first) ·
[server room and data centre MEP](/services/mep/server-room-and-data-centre-mep)

## What to settle before construction drawings

- **Headcount per department and growth over the lease**, which sets the split between
  open desks, team cubicles and cabins.
- **Dining sittings and shift timings.** A hall sized on total headcount is either half
  empty or a queue; sittings decide the seat count.
- **The kitchen menu and equipment list**, because the chapati line, exhaust and drainage
  fix the kitchen layout before the hall is drawn.
- **IT and power loads**, which size the server and UPS rooms and their cooling.
- **Which product drawings and display parts the company wants shown.** The murals are
  printed late, but their wall positions and lighting are fixed early.
- **Visitor and audit routes**, marked on the plan, so the leadership end stays private.

Related: [Cat A vs Cat B fit-out](/glossary/cat-a-vs-cat-b-fit-out) ·
[fit-out MEP coordination](/services/interior-fit-out/fit-out-mep-coordination)

## Taking it to site

We design and build offices like this one as a single contract, from the concept views to
the handover, across Noida and the NCR:
[office design and build](/services/office-design-build) ·
[turnkey office fit-out](/services/interior-fit-out/turnkey-office-fit-out) ·
[office interiors in Noida](/locations/noida) ·
[more of our designs](/our-designs)

**Planning a corporate office or a plant office in Noida?** Send the floor plan and your
headcount. [Talk to the design team](/contact).

## Frequently asked questions

### How is a corporate office for a manufacturing or automotive company designed differently?

It is designed for two audiences at once. Customers, auditors and OEM buyers judge the company on the reception, the boardroom and the product story on the walls; engineers and staff need long working hours, quick reviews and a proper meal. This design gives the first group a controlled route of reception, waiting, cut-off lobby and boardroom, and gives the second a workstation floor, a war room for daily reviews and a dining hall with its own kitchen.

### How do you bring a company's brand into an office interior without it looking like advertising?

Use the product rather than the logo. Here, line drawings of the components the company makes run across the feature walls of the workstation bay, waiting area, discussion zone and dining hall, and real parts sit in lit display niches. The palette is kept quiet (sage, mauve, taupe and grey stone) so the drawings carry the identity. It reads as an engineering company's office, not a showroom.

### What makes a boardroom feel premium?

Proportion, light and quiet, more than expensive finishes. This boardroom is a long room (9,167 × 4,425 mm on the drawing) with eight chairs a side and one at the head, a backlit screen wall, a suspended linear light frame over the table, a green stone border in the floor, and daylight from one side. It is reached through its own cut-off lobby rather than straight off the work floor.

### What is a cut-off lobby, and why put one before the boardroom?

A small vestibule between the open office and a room that needs privacy. Two doors in series stop sound and sightlines carrying from the work floor into the boardroom, give visitors somewhere to pause, and allow access control at the inner door. It costs a few square metres and protects the one room where confidential discussions happen.

### Should the staff dining hall be on the same floor as the office?

It can be, if it sits at the far end with its own service route. In this design the dining hall and kitchen occupy one end of the long first floor, with a separate service stair beside the kitchen's pre-preparation and landing area. Deliveries and waste never cross the dining hall or the workstations, and staff walk to lunch without using a lift or leaving the building.

### Why does the office have a separate server room and UPS room?

Because they have different needs. The server room needs controlled cooling, cable trays and restricted access; the UPS room holds batteries and power equipment with their own ventilation and heat load. Keeping them in adjacent but separate rooms lets each be ventilated, cooled and maintained properly, and keeps battery maintenance out of the network room.

### Can Hagerstone design and build an office like this in Noida?

Yes. We work across Noida and the NCR as a design and build contractor. Send the floor plan, headcount and the rooms you need, and we will prepare a concept like this one, with the plan, mood board and 3D views, before anything is drawn for construction.

## Sources

- [NBC 2016, Part 4](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/) — Fire and life safety — means of egress for business occupancy

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/our-designs/automotive-company-office-design-noida