We are commissioned to design a boutique showroom for the high-end tile dealer BKB. The client required three types of display spaces, sample rooms, single tile display walls, and display windows. Their shared characteristic is that all of them need extensive wall area. To deal with the site’s limited square footage and the client’s “unlimited” need of wall area, a super long continuous wall is designed to satisfy all the three functions.
The nearly 90-meter-long wall is folded 31 times in order to form the sample rooms, increase the length of display surface and help to keep the customers for longer stay in the showroom. It goes around the whole site and divides it into two parts, "outside the wall" and "inside the wall", connected by 7 door openings and 1 aperture. The wall integrates show windows, sample rooms, single tile display walls, brand culture introduction, discussion rooms, office and storage all into one continuous experience, creating a 150-meter-long effective display surface. Most of the "outside the wall" space can be seen directly from the mall corridors, making it a display window naturally. The "inside the wall" space is relatively more private, customers can meander through different tile products without distractions. The rough texture on the outside of the wall and the smooth texture on the inside are inspired by the production process of ceramic tiles from rough clay to smoothly finished products.