Try not to have your products overshadowed by their surroundings
Visiting the ROCA showroom in London’s Chelsea Design Quarter is quite something. The 1,100 sq m facility was designed and installed by Zaha Hadid’s architectural practice in 2009. The project took 2 years to complete and cost (but you didn’t hear it from us) in the region of £2.5m.
Inspired by water sculptures and the brand’s inventive heritage (they invented the wall hung toilet), the Hadid designed interior is almost entirely fluid in design, with no sharp lines or angles. Roca’s commitment to design and innovation is key to it’s identity and the building does an excellent job of conveying that. The movement of water is the overriding theme in the Roca London Gallery – flowing and merging exterior and interior spaces. The interior is made up of hand sprayed and finished concrete panels (each one completely unique). State of the art lighting connects each of the different areas whilst serving as a central axis running through the gallery that the staff refer to as the “spine”. The interior is fabulous, functional and flexible, featuring cutting-edge, modern, audiovisual, sound and lighting equipment. This technology provides interaction with the brand and the opportunity to discover the company’s history, its landmark achievements and the values on which all of Roca’s work is based: the commitment to sustainability and particularly to innovation, design, wellness and saving water.
Designed to grow with the brand, each display wall houses an ingenious system of hooks, which screw away when not in use, but can be used to clip panels of any size on, housing the latest collection of sanitary ware. More permanent installations include the working shower display and the organically shaped meeting room table, which gives each seated party an uninterrupted view of the projection screen. The waving shape guides the shopper around the building in a natural arc, you can’t see what’s behind the next wall, but a glimpse of lighting indicates it might be exciting.
ROCA have a permanent exhibition space, and will give free tours of the building upon request.
