An Innovative Showcase

Utopia Designs create a striking experience centre with innovative showcasing strategies for Shivshakti Laminates in Surat.

Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Photographix India, courtesy Utopia Designs

The shell of the experience resonates the original industrial flavour with exposed ceilings and services. The sombreness of grey is countered with warm wooden accents.

The project

The project for Shivshakti Laminates involved creating a distinct, memorable experience centre for a leading Surat-based purveyor of laminates and veneers. This was aligned to the client’s brief, which indicated a desire for an entity with a unique and high recall value, one that would maximise and experiment with merchandise display strategies.

The site

The site was a disused textile manufacturing plant located in one of Surat’s industrial precincts. The ground floor, which was outside the scope of the assignment, is a warehouse/storehouse used by the clients. The EightxFour Experience Centre by Shivshakti Laminates and the allied office activities were to be housed on the first floor.

A group of MS display frames orchestrated in a maze-like fashion draws the visitor in, inviting him to explore further.

The facade treatment

The materiality of the elevation helped the centre establish its own built identity within the mundane urban fabric. The facade was clad in low-maintenance grey tiles, accented with faux wood HPL and ACP. The ground floor entrance to the experience centre is situated to one side to minimise disturbance to the functioning of the warehouse. It is designed as a HPL block recessed within the main structure. The long row of windows on the first floor were outlined, again in HPL, emphasising the low-slung, rectilinear volume. ACP jaalis, installed at regular intervals, shield the outdoor units of ACs.

Samples of laminates are treated as objects of ornamentation and displayed within the MS partition in different ways.

The vertical connection

In the compact foyer, the first flight of stairs is articulated as a simple folded aluminium sheet. It then ‘blossoms’ into a sculptural teak wood and glass element when it gets enough space as it progresses upwards. Here, a cultured stone-lined wall seems to ground the light, graphical series of steps. The stylistic quotient of the entire composition is heightened by cascading illuminated glass orbs. Back in the foyer, a cladding of black mirror around the elevators alleviates the tightness of space by adding a reflective lightness.

Conventional display methods — like configurations that allow customers to turn sheets of laminates much like the pages of a book — augment the merchandise display.

The spatial flow

The office/admin block is positioned along the windows, leaving a large part of the 6,500-square-foot area for the product display. This strategy also ensures natural light into the workspaces and an environment conducive to the well-being of the users. The rest of the area is seamless, but modulated into a series of pockets with the help of different display strategies. Interspersed among the display are seating clusters, as discussion tables and benches, that allow customers to discuss intended purchases or view products in comfort. Flexible track lighting puts sheets of veneers and laminates in the limelight, much like art in a gallery.

The material palette

The shell of the experience centre was kept subtle, to maintain the focus on the products on display. The earlier industrial flavour of the space was kept intact through exposed ceilings and services, its gravitas toned down and warmed up with wood and wood finishes.

The display strategies

Innovation in product display was a constant pursuit while designing the experience centre. While some display strategies — like configurations that allow customers to turn sheets of laminates much like the pages of a book, and small ‘swatches’ of basic laminates being arranged in a grid-like fashion on a wall — toed the tried and tested routes, others took a less-beaten track. Among the latter are groups of MS frames (taller than is the norm), orchestrated in a maze-like fashion. Within these are inserted sheets of laminates in pairs (back to back), leaving the edges open. This creates visual porosity and intrigue, inviting the visitor to walk around and explore. Another innovative strategy is treating ‘swatches’ of laminates as objects of ornamentation by deploying them within an MS partition.

FACT FILE

Project: EightxFour Experience Centre by Shivshakti Laminates
Location: Surat
Area: 6,500 sq ft
Principal architect: Apurva Desai
Principal designers: Bhavin Swami, Urvakhsh Chichgar and Vipul Nakrani