#roca gallery

As you may know Roca London Gallery is a both a contemporary showroom that showcases Roca bathroom products and a design/architecture gallery space, designed by Zaha Hadid. Plus the italian fashion brand Armani designed a collection in partnership with Roca so you can find an exclusive section dedicated to Armani Bathroom products.

MORE ABOUT ROCA LONDON GALLERY

  For the annual event that celebrates and promotes London as one of the main design capitals of the world Roca London Gallery will be showcasing communal bathing, spas and saunas featuring contemporary projects designed by international architects and designers.

Jane Withers, who curated the exhibition with the design by Kellenbeger-White, selected a wide range of examples within the bathing culture that spaces from the traditional Roman baths and Turkish hamam to the Japanese onsen and Nordic saunas.

Particularly glad to see that Löyly, the new sauna in Helsinki designed by Avanto Architects was mentioned. I saw it last month when I went to Helsinki and it’s there that I’ve learnt that, specially for Finnish, public sauna is a social experience more than a mere leisure activity.

  So if you are in London 17-25 September 2016 don’t miss THE LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL. There’s a program full of events, exhibitions, installations, workshops, talks, walks and so much more!

I highly recommend a visit to “Soak, Steam, Dream: Reinventing Bathing Culture” exhibition, even to admire this unique Gallery if you haven’t been here already.

ROCA LONDON GALLERY

Station Court Townmead Road London SW6 2PY

“Soak, Steam, Dream: Reinventing Bathing Culture”

16 September 2016 – 28 January 2017    Free Admission

Zaha Hadid hasn’t designed that much in London. Her most known London’s project is the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park but besides that she only designed the Evelyn Grace Academy, an educational building in Brixton, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Hyde Park and my recent discovery: the Roca Gallery, a showroom for the Spanish bathroom brand Roca.

As every Zaha Hadid’s project this is nothing ordinary and so much more than just a product display space. First of all there isn’t any wall enclosing any space but the whole interior is a flow, a continuos stream with semi-opened zones in which Roca’s bathroom products are shown. The concept is brilliant and perfectly in line with Zaha’s biomorphic language of design: she reproduced the erosive effect of moving water that carves out the interior and keeps flowing really dynamically through the whole gallery.

So that the semi-enclosed spaces look like water-sculpted caves with the water movement still visible on the ceiling and floor through an enthralling lines pattern.

To me it’s like seeing the artificial version of a cave after the tide has subsided, in which the water flow imprented on the sand is replaced in an abstract way by curvy lines carved on the floor and the daily erosive process is well reproduced by the use of dull grey gypsum vertical surfaces.

It’s an impressive open space and the walking experience has a sensational and sensorial impact (at least on me) and every element around you recalls of water flowing. Everything has been designed with the purpose of giving this sensation from the floor tiles pattern to the elongated drops-like pods used as lighting elements, shelves, seats and tables with their polished and smooth surface, plus the light installations enhance the seamlessly black and white stream movement. 

The only thing that let me uncertain is that this showroom is so overwhelming that the products that should be the protagonists unavoidably fade into insignificance. So I wonder if Roca actually benefits from displaying its products in a place that has a huge visual impact like this one.

  By the way, hope that everyone who lives in London has been here, if not go for a Saturday stroll and, never know, you may come back home with a new bathtub. I love this one below, I want the same with the same kind of window that makes the same heart shape effect but with the ocean’s view please!

    If you want to experience (it’s the right word) this flagship showroom and check Roca’s bathroom products:

ROCA LONDON GALLERY

Address

Station Court Townmead Road London SW6 2PY

Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 5:30pm. Saturdays from 11am to 5pm.

During the London Design Festival, I had the pleasure to visit Roca's gallery, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, in west London. Roca is a leading global bathroom brand, and for the 2012 London Design Festival, it organised an architectural biking tour that linked Earl's Court to the gallery.

Throughout the tour, the guide made a few stops and talked about the past and the close future of some of London's renowned architecture. Among them: Lots Road power station and Brompton cemetery. The tour was informative and the guide was very kind and helpful.

Once we reached the destination, we had the chance to walk around the gallery and ask questions about its design. Before entering, the facade introduced us to the organic theme of the design and walking in, I felt like a drop of water in its natural environment. The space represents perfectly the meaning of the brand in an innovative and modern way. The architecture takes inspiration by the movement of water, creating an organic space where Roca's designs are exhibited. The gallery also includes a meeting area.

A guide showed us around and told us the “behind the scenes” of the design. Constructing the space was tricky, as each piece that make up the ceiling and the walls is unique. They all have a specific spot allocated, creating a big 3D jigsaw and a striking effect. The floor is made out of resin and cement, and the ceramic tiles that cover some parts of the gallery, also have unique shapes that contribute at making the effect stronger. The different areas of the gallery are connected by big black and white water drops on the ceiling and on the walls.

Como os comentamos anteriormente, continuamos con el ciclo de siete charlas, a realizarse durante mayo y junio, en Roca Madrid Gallery.

En esta segunda charla del 14 de mayo, hemos podido contar con Juanjo Riesgo como ponente.

El objetivo de la  sesión cross mentoring «Introducción al Ecosistema Emprendedor» fue revisar los aspectos y elementos básicos que giran alrededor del emprendedor,  y entender el papel que juegan los diferentes agentes en este escenario.

Hemos intentado poner en claro un montón de dudas que nos asaltan cuando nos asomamos a este apasionante ecosistema. Desde definir qué es una startup y como aplica el concepto a los emprendedores, del tipo que sean, hasta la revisión de los modelos de negocio más comunes que nos encontramos en el emprendimiento.

Repasamos aspectos y conceptos fundamentales, como la importancia de la idea, el plan de negocio, fuentes, formas de financiación, etc.

Mención e interés especial ha merecido el capítulo Recursos para Emprendedores sin Recursos.

Una sesión muy interactiva, didáctica y complementada con la experiencia de las emprendedoras y futuras emprendedoras de EPWN.

UP DESIGN