The project involved designing a 12,000 square foot showroom for a car brand along a busy main street in Kerala, India. The unusual brief was to make the "parking lot" of vehicle displays the focal point, rather than a backdrop. This posed architectural challenges to create 360 degree viewing since the facade directly faced the street and customers entered from the rear. The design merged the floor, walls, ceiling and products into a single unified wrap that connected the showroom interior to the busy street outside. Hanging customer counters and a curved wall separated private and public areas within the innovative space.

2. World Interior Design /
Fascinating Exhibition Space
W RAP 4
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Design Company: Collaborative Architecture
Location: Kerala, India
Area: 12,000 sq ft
Photographer: Lalita Tharani
The project forms the part of the firm’s continuing main street with no set back, having a 60 m long, The wrap, which merges the floor, wall, ceiling
explorations in spatial syntax by altering the uninterrupted façade. and the products into a single, unified entity
classical space defining co-ordinates / tools The ensuing architectural response did exactly establishes the vital link between the showroom,
through non-hierarchical tectonics and even the opposite of brief, by positioning the "parking- the display and the people in the showroom
combing the users / products to that end. lot" (vehicular display) as the "raison detre" and on one hand and the speeding traffic and the
An unusual brief “Car displays, inevitably are the anchoring element in the showroom. passers-by on the street – a 60 m "Billboard"
‘parking-lots’! Give us a nice back drop for The disposition of the showroom posed a unique mimicking the flux of movement on the street.
the product display” and a strategic urban architectural challenge to create a 360-degree The "hanging counters" are the customer
location, which smacked the main street of the viewing, as the façade abuts the road and interfaces in the showroom, which are hung from
city became the architectural direction and the the customers enter from the backside of the the ceiling as the name indicates. These could
determining design parameters. showroom. Unlike most of the stores, which are be slid and rotated to a new position to maneuver
The brief was to insert the whole gamut of designed for front viewing, here the design has the vehicles in the space.
program for a middle-segment brand in a 12,000 to address the changing experiential views of the The sinusoidal curve separates the private
sq ft old warehouse. The showroom abuts the spectator. domains – lounges from the public area.
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