Roca Madrid Gallery belongs to a series of showrooms that Roca distributed in several cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, London, Beijing... in order to offer users a contemporary approach to the brand.
Before entering the interior of the venue, the architect takes us outside to show us one of the key elements of the project, the frieze that the Catalan artist Josep Maria Subirachs made for the company almost five decades before the intervention carried out by Estudio Lamela.
This venue had an advantage: it already belonged to Roca, and had already been designed in the sixties for the company. When we started with the project, we found that there was a piece in the building, a very beautiful mural by Subirachs, made in situ in reinforced concrete. (...) This type of intervention, which was very usual in the sixties, when sculpture and painting were incorporated into architecture, is a dimension that we have lost today. We thought it was very important to preserve it.
Carlos Lamela, co-founder architect and executive president of Estudio Lamela.
Once inside, it is striking that the space, inaugurated eight years ago, continued to convey a sense of contemporaneity that also surprises the architect, "it seems that time has not passed". In this regard, we asked him if he would have to changed something, now seeing it almost a decade later.
Good question. It's interesting because it's normal when you go back to some intervention carried out by the studio after ten years. But I think this was timeless. I honestly wouldn't think of changing anything now, I think it's aged very well. I could be eight years old or two.
Carlos Lamela, co-founder architect and executive president of Estudio Lamela.
The architect explains that although it looks like a simple space, it turned out to be a very complex work due to the execution of the installations, as it had very little height in some areas. Circular units, as "bubbles", organize the space in a fluid way, guiding the experience.
In order to separate the interior from the exterior of these bubbles, we proposed these metal curtains. A very complex issue was how to hang them from the ceiling. One of our architects came up with a system based on bicycle chains, something very flexible, and we achieved this result.
Carlos Lamela, co-founder architect and executive president of Estudio Lamela.
Description of project by Estudio Lamela
The intervention in the premises starts from the need to provide it with an exhibition space that integrates the direct relationship with the firm's products, the feeling of traveling through an interactive and participating art space.
The integration with the work area is also sought at a higher level, in addition to providing the space with a multifunctional area, which favors direct contact with the client, which allows offering product presentations, studies of the spaces that the client exhibits and facilitate the celebration of events to advertise the brand.
Suggestive spaces, wrapped in elements that reveal the showcased pieces, which offer to try out the most innovative elements and actively participate in the relationship with water in the bathroom.
The venue takes advantage of the south and east facades to show the products to the public. Access to the premises is located in the northeast corner, on Zurbano St.
Functional flexibility
The exhibition space is conceived as a diaphanous space, all at the same level, on the ground floor, designed to be roamed by the visitor; a tour that guides through the elements of the firm, located in enclosures where the pieces are placed on islands to be admired.
The location of the work space on the upper level creates an environment separate from the exhibition, but at the same time linked to the exhibition and sales area at any time.
Adaptation to the existing premises
The uses divided by floors that currently exist in the premises are maintained.
In the basement there is a new distribution of spaces to house the facility rooms and changing rooms and toilets area for the staff. The ground floor houses the exhibition space, an access control area and toilets for the disabled; while the first floor features an area for projections and events as well as the office area, equipped with toilets, a small office, meeting room and a multifunctional space.
The facades will remain as shop windows; being the south façade, which runs along José Abascal St., a transparent element, prepared to showcase the products; however, on the façade on Zurbano St., occasional exhibition elements will be created, to display special pieces of the brand, solidifying the rest of the façade surface.
Functional aspects
The project seeks maximum use of the premises, eliminating steps in the exhibition area, creating a continuous space. Parallel to the façade on José Abascal we place a platform adjusting to the slope of the street, where the novelties and outstanding products will be exhibited.
The sanitary products will be located on the entire ground floor, ending the tour in a special area, where the faucets and shower trays will be located. To the right of the access, there is a platform where more novelties will be exhibited and which leads to the staircase that connects us to the first floor where we will find a space dedicated to temporary exhibitions, linked to the ground floor through a double height .
Crossing this space, we find the meeting room, an toilets area, which will serve the multifunctional space, and finally an office area. In addition, there is a small office and an elevator to facilitate access for people with reduced mobility, this being an element of restricted use.
The perimeter of the premises has an irregular geometry, for which we will have elements that standardize these surfaces, with a wall on the northern front that collects all the toilet facilities of the upper level, air conditioning, electrical and other services required to create a living space.
Ground floor
Destined to exhibition space. The ± 0.00 level is established as the finished pavement level on the ground floor. This being the current level of access to the premises. The minimum height of this floor will be 2.50 m. varying up to 5.82 m. in double-height spaces.
It has a platform parallel to the south façade on José Abascal, planned for exhibitions of the product, through a double height space. The lower floor has a toilet for the disabled and an elevator for access to the first floor.
First floor
On this floor, the offices that currently function are maintained.
You can access it through the building's main door through an independent access to the premises or through the staircase that connects the two floors from the exhibition space.
In order to serve the offices there are facilities for toilets, a small office and a differentiated meeting room, the floor is completed with a multifunctional space that visually connects to the ground floor through the double height that surrounds it on the east and south fronts, having direct contact with the shop windows on Zurbano and José Abascal streets.
The level of finished pavement of this plant is set at + 3.20 m leaving a free height of 2.50 m until the finished ceiling level.
