We make an official beginning - with corporates and their stripes! Yes, those make a powerful impact in the corporate world, and we’re not talking about the ho-hum pinstriped shirts. Try missing the bold yellow and grey barcode carpeting the corridors of this office designed by Defacto's Dnyanesh Madgaonkar as it gets gloriously reflected in the similarly coloured pieces of furniture and partition walls, even glass ones, alongside it. One is amazed at the power that a small detail like colour coordinated stripes on the floor can wield in enhancing the entire interior!

Alternatively, wonder at the power of these horizontal bars of bright colours adorning the wall of this narrow passage lined with cabins along one side in an office by Rajesh Patel. Surely, the winning element for people passing through the corridor as well as those gazing across from their seats in the cabins! Rajesh Patel uses stripes again in the corridor of a Spa (image 2), where the flooring has grey and yellow stone strips interspersed with thin white ones. These are playfully supported by the circular form of the decorative plaques adorning the wall on one side, and a slender counter overlooked by a Ganesha gracing the other wall.

Talking of stripes leads us to a funky corridor in a corporate office Ashfaque Aboojiwala (image 3). Bathed in black, the walls and floor are lit up by the neon green cushioned seats and geometric graphics backing them, and the matching green stripes underlining the directionality of the circulation. The most unconventional use of stripes, though, can be found in the aisles of this office designed by Studio An-V-Thot Architects (Cover Image). The stripes here are unique and incidental, contributed by the reds-and-browns strip-stripe collage on the backboards of workstations and the quaint bands of green grill patterns adorning the cabin partitions!

Then, there are hospital corridors that have been perked up by designer Suresh Lakhani’s use of marine graphics like ships and dolphins over frothy waters to top the bands of blue tiles lining the walls that would cheer any child. And children are sure to be happiest learning their first lessons at this kindergarten designed by PATH (image 4) architects at Auroville where the corridor encircling the central courtyard is treated as a street along which different classes and activities are lined up. Its brightly coloured pillars and sun-filled circular roof punctures sprinkle in just the right amount of playfulness that doesn’t eclipse a child’s vision of her natural surroundings.

Bold graphics that don’t just catch your eye, but immerse you within their envelope are encountered in the foyer of this display gallery designed by German firm J Mayer H Und Partner Architekten at Berlin. Even a simple graphic of a network of pipe-like forms in black over a white surface, when blown up to an immersive scale, makes the space mesmerising! The magic of bold graphics in passages can also be witnessed in the administration block of a Mumbai educational institute designed by Planet3Studios (image 5) with grey and yellow bands and hexagons covering the wall and spilling over to the ceiling. It can also be experienced in colourful carpet lining the aisles of an office designed by Rajesh Patel (image 6).

Planet3Studios takes bold visuals to the next level with a combination of curvaceous forms, a profusion of patterns, a potpourri of colours and a plethora of elements in this passage of the same educational institution. And talking of impactful visuals, one cannot miss the architecture of Hafeez Contractor – whether it be the departure foyer of the domestic air terminal in Mumbai with its fancily curved rib-cage glass and steel vaulted enclosure or the suspended walkway at the Infosys Global Foundation (image 7) presided over by huge circular apertures in every conceivable surface!

Residential spaces, passages in particular, would tend to be far more constricted as compared to commercial or institutional ones as we can well imagine. But, the treatment of these spaces can open them up in fantastic ways, as can be seen in this residence designed by Ashfaque Aboojiwala. Here, the simple act of creating a seamless glass enclosure for the pooja room at the upper level visually opens up the entire circulation at that level. Lijo and Reny have applied a mirror that runs at mid-height along the entire length of this corridor of a home in Kerala which reflects the lush plants lining the facing wall resulting in double the greenery! 

This residential passage on the upper floor of a home by architects Sandeep Khosla and Amaresh Anand seems suspended in blissful openness with no walls abutting it and daylight streaming in from openings on all sides. Though, most heart-warming is the placement by Rajesh Patel (image 8) of hand-wash counters in this narrow alley of a space which deceptively appears unenclosed thanks to a combination of green plants and sky-lights.

An office building in UAE done by Lijo and Reny has the beauty of its already opulent marble clad corridors further accentuated by bold long strips of lighting in the ceiling as well as backlit panels on the walls. Light plays the protagonist in this residential passage by Rumy Shroff (image 9) with the brilliant amber lighting amid the ceiling wood rafters along its length and the sculptural light gracing the corner at the end of it.  The little foot-lights along a curved wall abutting a passage at a Rajesh Patel office (image 10) also contribute a dainty detail.

At a residence designed by Mayur Shah at Vadodara, it is an eclectic collection of decorative and ethnic elements that work magic into the circulation spaces. The brass Ganesha idol, accessorised by a hanging bell and a flower bowl, is placed against a background of diagonal wood panelling brightened by light from various sources, An eclectic mix of elements – ethnic, modernistic and in-between, natural and built – enhances the interest in this external passage or yard in Sandeep Khosla and Amaresh Anand’s design (image 11).

Screens usually make an impact and add value wherever they are placed, why not passages? These perforated screens of delicate designs and pervasive size are a testimony to this design fact as used to mark passages in Dipen Gada’s apparel showroom (image 12) and Studio An-V-Thot’s residential design. And, the charming patterns cast by the sun filtering through the delicate apertures of a perforated screen wall shading this passage in a school by Sandeep Khosla and Amaresh Anand (image 13) provide just the right magic for the little users. 

Long passages (verandahs) lining the exterior walls of structures are a charming typicality of tropical architecture. The slender colonnade and quaint but minimal ethnic detailing adorning this long, narrow passage that buffers a vast exterior courtyard from a swanky Vadodara restaurant designed by architect Vijay Matai make all the difference in the ambience. Equally charming is Dhruva Samal’s detailing of wicker furniture, tiled flooring and colonnaded railings of an office in Colaba (image 14).

As a final image, we look at Yatin Kavaiya and Jiten Tosar’s office design where a large black and white graphic of a construction site against a news print background adorning the foyer wall springs just the right element of surprise in the general warmth of exposed brick, framed pictures and potted greens. Even more surprising is the number of elements that get easily accommodated in the passage-like area of the reception and waiting lounge (image 15), looked over by a second level landing approached by a staircase located in this very space.... says you can do a lot with passages!!