Firm： Studio Lotus

Type： Commercial › Retail Showroom

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2017

As its first global flagship in India, the Kohler Experience Centre (KEC) is a unique attempt by Kohler to create a hands-on Immersive experience of their entire product range and technology behind the products. Celebrating innovation and diversity of style in a dynamic, studio-like environment, the experience centre crafts a format that invites designers and architects to use the space as an extension of their own offices.

Spread across two floors, the 10,000-sqft space in Delhi has been designed as a spartan, monolithic shell dotted with luxurious materials.

The seemingly simple space is a result of rigorous iterations, R&D and prototyping, in an attempt to create a challenging canvas that would highlight and tie together the experiential nature of engaging with over 600 products. This has been enabled by means of a muted material palette of stained Birch, textured grey paint and natural concrete floor,that serves as a backdrop for the products with highlights of brass inserts, large format tiles, black and white Italian Marble, lacquered mild steel and White Ash timber.

With four specifically demarcated areas – the Café and Designer Gallery at the ground level and Warehouse and Lab in the basement, each touch point is designed to elevate customer interactions, so that they engage with the brand, its products and services at a whole new level.

As the first touch point of KEC, 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.

The Designer Gallery provided an exciting opportunity to collaborate with seven leading Indian architects, who created diverse bathroom suites for varied experiences. The Gallery also has a permanent space dedicated to showcase two designer suites developed by the firm for the Kallista range of Kohler. The brand’s most premium collection, the exquisite handcrafted Artists Edition, is displayed along the periphery as art pieces; as an outline to both the Café and the Designer Gallery.

A brand timeline with key markers wraps around the timber and lacquered mild steel staircase connecting the two floors.

At the basement level, 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 that distinguish line-ups, collections and trends.

Fully-functioning displays in the Lab successfully address the challenges of plumbing and drainage to create an enhanced product experience, while augmenting the knowledge in this domain.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 custom designed modular display system is made of stained birch plyon-slotted angles. The idea behind the display systems was to give the brand unlimited opportunity to add and showcase products with ease.

Specialised lighting has been planned in order to endow an even wash on the products and graphics, in order to highlight information. Customised furniture has been used to create an integrated cohesive brand experience.

Image Credits: Andre J Fanthome