Excerpt: Benjamin Moore Experience Center, designed by NDB Design Studio, is a showroom and experiential space hoping to convey its brand values and image. The design team broke the conventional display modes of showrooms but tried to combine products and art experimentally and reshape the overall spatial scenes for experience, purchasing, and communication, thereby turning the 100㎡ space into a place with attitudes and full of “impromptu” surprises.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] American paint brand Benjamin Moore commissioned NDB DESIGN STUDIO to conceive a showroom and experiential space in Jinhua, China, hoping to convey its brand values and image. The design team broke the conventional display modes of showrooms, but tried to combine products and art in an experimental way and reshape the overall spatial scenes for experience, purchasing and communication, thereby turning the 100㎡ space into a place with attitudes and full of “impromptu” surprises.
As approaching the project, NDB DESIGN STUDIO broke the conventional thinking. In common practice, coating is the last step for interior decoration, and it seems that it is only an appendage of the whole decoration process and only function as a backdrop along with walls.
However, NDB team doubted why paint could only be attached to walls but not for making props? This became the starting point of the design. The design team hoped to shake off the conventional practice and process, and to fully showcase the excellent performance of the brand’s paint products.
NDB DESIGN STUDIO adopted an experimental approach to conceive the space by capturing random occurrences and sudden flash of ideas. The design was taken as a process of experiment and discovery.
The light bulb that provided lighting for painting process on the site, the masking tape tore off from the painted ceramic tiles, and the structural parts cut from the curved wall for length control, harmonize with each other in this space. As carriers of the spatial creation process, those items are retained in the space, which enables visitors to clearly perceive what happened here.
Objects that meet various needs in daily life, such as yoga ball, shoes, stool, rain coat and tiles, are highlighted by paint of various colors, showing a random status.
The functions of space were not preset. It’s available for multiple purposes, such as exhibition, socializing, photography and events, etc. Freely combined props generate various applicable scenes. The space is endowed with varying attributes by random occurrences. This space is not confined to a fixed function, but provides infinite possibilities for use.
Common materials such as wood, stone, leather, steel tube and acrylic are presented in a touchable manner in combination with paint. Their semi-processed state shows the dramatic fusion and contrast of material textures and paint colors, and brings diverse experiences that refine the value of display props.
The space is dominated by a grayish tone, and is highlight by vivid hues attached to objects. Lively paint colors are combined with forms, creating varying sensory experiences and evoking interaction. This space is shaped by both design and life. The overall design shakes off presets, but instead adopts an experimental approach to embrace uncertainties and return to the simplicity of life.
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