Oscar & Ponni Architects

Our workplace is located at No 2 on Vivekananda Road in Chetpet, specifically within the Srinivasan Nagar area. It’s a central part of Chennai, but our street has its own rhythm. The office is situated in a way that we see a lot of the neighborhood life going by. Inside, the space is pretty much what you’d expect for a place where people design buildings. There are drafting tables that haven't been cleared off in weeks and shelves sagging under the weight of thick reference books. We don’t bother much with making the place look like a showroom. It’s more about having enough room to spread out a big set of blueprints or to sit and discuss a tricky corner of a floor plan. The air conditioning is usually struggling against the Chennai heat, and the sound of the keyboard clicking is the main soundtrack to our day. We spend a good chunk of our time on the phone with vendors or out at construction sites getting our shoes dusty. Back at the office, it’s mostly about the details and making sure the numbers add up. It’s a bit of a lived-in space, with old coffee mugs and stacks of mail on the side tables. We’ve been in Chetpet for a while now, and we like being in this part of the city where things feel a bit more established and familiar to us as we go about our work.