<h5-red>CLIENT KOHLER INDIA I <h5-red>AREA<h5-red> 10,000 SQFT I <h5-red>STATUS<h5-red> COMPLETED IN 2017 I <h5-red>TEAM<h5-red> ASHA SAIRAM, TANUJ BIYANI, NEELAM DAS, KRISTEL SEQUEIRA, YUNUS MANIYAR, DIVYA AGGARWAL I <h5-red>PHOTOGRAPHER<h5-red> ANDRÉ J. FANTHOME I <h5-red>AWARD<h5-red> GOLD IN HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALTY STORE CATEGORY AT VM&RD RETAIL DESIGN AWARDS 2018
The 10,000-sqft Experience Centre in New Delhi has been designed as a spartan monolithic shell dotted with luxurious materials to envision Kohler’s unique attempt to create a hands-on Immersive experience of their entire product range and the technology behind it.
<rt-red>With four areas spread across two floors – Café and Designer Gallery at the ground level and Warehouse and Lab in the basement, each touch point of the Kohler Experience Centre is designed to elevate customer interactions so that they engage with the brand, its products and services on a whole new level.<rt-red> As the first touch point, the Café engages customers as a conducive space for interactions and inspirations. It has been developed as a dedicated area for meetings and design events, where the private meeting spaces are screened off with visuals of product manufacturing.
<rt-red>The seemingly simple space of the Centre is a result of rigorous iterations, R&D and prototyping to create the challenging canvas that would highlight and tie the experience of over 600 products in total.<rt-red> This was achieved with a material palette of stained Birch, natural concrete floor with brass inserts, large format tiles, black and white Italian Marble, lacquered mild steel and White Ash timber. The Designer Gallery provided an exciting opportunity to collaborate with seven leading Indian architects who developed individual interpretations of bathroom suites.
The Designer Gallery also has a permanent space dedicated to showcase two designer suites developed by the firm for the Kallista range of Kohler. <rt-red>The brand’s most premium collection, a part of the exquisite handcrafted Artists Edition, is displayed along the periphery as art displays; as an outline to both the Café and the Designer Gallery.<rt-red> The two floors of the Experience Centre as connected with a timber, lacquered mild steel and marble staircase, which is wrapped around with a brand timeline with key markers.
<rt-red>The immersive Lab brings alive Kohler’s product innovation through interactive, live displays while the Warehouse curates a density of over 350 products through colour coded sub-zones distinguishing line-ups, collections and trends.<rt-red> Fully-functioning displays in the Lab successfully addressed challenges of plumbing and drainage to create an enhanced product experience. The Lab also features an interactive screen on birch finish wood wall that explains further on the behind-the-product tales of Kohler products.
In the Warehouse, the display of the products is divided in six sub-zones and the modular display system is made of stained birch plyon slotted angles. <rt-red>The idea behind the custom-designed modular display systems was to give Kohler unlimited opportunity to add and showcase products with ease.<rt-red> A team of experts was brought in to design specialised lighting for an even wash on the products, graphics and technology to highlight information and customised furniture for an integrated cohesive brand experience.
VM&RD Retail Design Awards 2018 Home Improvement Specialty Store Category Winner
