Roca London Gallery by Zaha Hadid Architects

Project Name: Roca Gallery London
Function: Gallery
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Lead Architects: Zaha Hadid & Patrik Shumacher
Area: 1100 m^{2
Year: 2009-2011
Phgotographer: Rocca Gallery}

Roca London Gallery 

Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the new Roca London Gallery located in the well-known Chelsea Harbor district near King’s Road. Taking its inspirational cue from the idea of a space created by water in its various different states, ZHA’s bespoke design defines a flowing and porous space for the 1100m2 Roca London Gallery. The concept defining each of the Roca Galleries is to take the visitor far beyond simply researching and choosing products in order to create a uniquely enjoyable sensory experience, enabling visitors to enjoy all the qualities of the brand Designed as a versatile multi-purpose environment, the Gallery will host a wide range of social and cultural events of interest to Roca, including exhibitions produced in-house and externally, meetings, presentations, debates and receptions. Zaha Hadid Architects has fully addressed this need for a place defining harmony between form and function in which visitors experience the very essence of Roca. The design brings about a connective language between the architecture and the bathroom products, with the movement of water ‘carving out the interior and moving through the Gallery as individual drops. A flowing, all-white space made of faceted GRG (gypsum) panels serves as a central axis of the Gallery. Around this a number of smaller connected semi-enclosed spaces can be viewed through openings in walls. As a result, the visitor never feels enclosed in one space, but can always see beyond it into the space through overlapping and cutaway forms that enable a pleasing permeability to the Gallery.

The design theme of water movement extends to the dynamic façade of the Roca London Gallery, which appears initially to the visitor approaching the architecture like a set of ripples in movement across the exterior of the ground level space. The grey façade has large apertures for the main entrance and windows and an appearance of tactility, creating a sense of intrigue on the street as the visitor approaches. Water defines the landscape of the interior space, creating a sense of mobile liquidity reinforced by a series of elongated, illuminated water drops. These cascade around the ceiling as a set of lighting fixtures, down the walls as shelves for books, media and small products, and onto the floor as tables and seating. Their fluid lines of convergence both lend each area of the space an individual identity and connect them by the way they define a feeling of movement. The architects’ geometry is akin to natural forms, with no one point in the space being projected vertically. They enjoy being challenged by this and the innate complexity of the process of bringing the design to respond fully, through modeling and testing, to very specific social functions. New technologies and social media have become the primary communication tool today and for the visitor to the Roca London Gallery they play a key role. These new media resources enable visitors to be entertained as well as to learn about the values, history and special achievements of the brand, including its social responsibility and commitment to the environment and to water sustainability.

منابع و ماخذ: 
iW Detail & Design. Vol 101