Boy Boy, It's Bobois!

Bonjour Roche Bobois! India welcomes the big time French furniture retailer Roche Bobois to its retailscape with the brand's first flagship store being set up in Mumbai. With integrated brand DNA, the store professes its presence at a high-end location in Mumbai -- the Indiabulls Centre.

Owing to its origins, the store had to endorse an attitude of high international standards. A certain consistency which is seen in all Roche Bobois stores across the world, had to be maintained. A posh location, exaggerated visibility and a high-traffic street are all must-haves for the store. The exaggerated visibility gets translated with half of its perimeter in window glazing. The huge signage assures that no passer-by would miss a statement as profound as this. The 5,000 sq. ft. expanse of the store allows the luxury factor to seep in and be in sync with its international counterparts. The store is spread across just one level allowing clear lines of vision cutting through the space. The 8 metre high ceiling elaborates its plush nature.

With such a wide surface designed to be glazed, sun exposure was an important issue to be addressed. So the surface is played with stripes in glass to avoid the exposure and retain the glass effect. To add a tinge of playfulness, the bright colours of the store are partially revealed through the glass. With the magnificence the store displays on its exterior itself, it gives a vibe of a bloated jewellery box to the moving traffic; a glass box which houses the tangible form of luxury. Roche Bobois Mumbai sees its access through a sumptuous double height staircase made in marble. One cannot go wrong with marble when spelling luxury.

A Roche Bobois flavour runs through all its stores which connects one store to another and respects the brand ethos. Yet, the store has to adapt to the building which shelters it and also relate to the local language. The Indiabulls Centre, in which the Roche Bobois store has been introduced, displays a very contemporary taste. The store imbibes this style in its interiors and juxtaposes it with elements which connote the French house of furniture. So, the stores all over the world are still distinct from each other as they adopt the architectural features of the building.

Vibrant colours crawl across the store in its merchandise as well the decor. "We use colourful and natural materials. We play and create counterpoints between the features of the building and the inside of the showroom, as in Mumbai (really contemporary) and the warmth of natural colours on the walls, the marble floor and the glazed windows,” says Samvit Tara, Managing Director, Roche Bobois Mumbai.

As for the spaces, they emerge from the display style. Being a furniture store, it does all in its power for the customer movement to flow the way it wants. Ensembles of furniture and accessories are created to give the customer a complete idea of the setting in their own homes. The flooring takes a shift to black marble at places and the furniture is displayed there accordingly depending on the high taste the brand possesses. The product line pays attention to the fact that the store is part of the Indian market. Silhouettes of Indian textures can be seen in the displays.

With the advantage of the 8 metre ceiling height, separate volumes could be defined. The cloud effect ceiling has been made possible with drop down paper ceiling. It is also suggestive of a fluid space. Partitions were created with a box-effect in which the ceiling style continued to the floor. It was finished with a brown textured effect matching the wall textures in most places across the store. This porous screen of sorts, works as a divider to create zones like living, dining, bedroom, etc. At the same time it also isolates a space to be experienced in its exclusivity. Part-walls in front of the glazing depict pictures of French history and architecture reminiscent of the store's heritage.

With brand codes to be followed, the design of the space comes from the Roche Bobois design office in Paris itself. "It has been a real thorough cooperation between local architects and contractors with our design office in Paris. We have also achieved a complete wireless setup for zone wise audio / video controls for the Roche Bobois store; a first attempt in any retail location in Mumbai,” says Samvit Tara.

The lighting in the store had to be typical of Roche Bobois stores; bright and high quality LEDs. At the same time it disposed warm light tones to the space. We may think that it is quite a challenge to design something when there is space crunch; the same attitude applies to larger spaces. Treating the space with the apt approach and bringing out the desired quality with such a huge canvas to work with, can also be quite a task. The store shows the result of the herculean task Roche Bobois took up.