“The House of Rohl has a Parisian, boutique feel. Its granite stone and brass entrance reveals an interior of rich sepia tones with black metal accents. In essence boutique craft.” -James Wild, Project Architect
“This project is a perfect example of an intense collaboration between our architectural studio and experiential design studio. Through this collaborative process, we were able to create a truly unique and holistic brand experience.”
-Joe Lawton, Principal
The House of Rohl, known for its rich array of luxury decorative plumbing and hardware brands, recently opened its first U.S. showroom at the Merchandise Mart LuxeHome in Chicago. LuxeHome is the world’s largest collection of premier boutiques for home building and renovation located on the first floor of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The House of Rohl’s new space now showcases some of the kitchen and bath industry’s most recognized brands—Riobel, Perrin & Rowe, Shaws, ROHL and Victoria + Albert. The showroom is the outcome of a synthesized collaboration between the architectural team at Valerio Dewalt Train and designers from Media Objectives (VDT's in-house experiential design studio). Through an immersive and collaborative process, the team worked alongside stakeholders from each brand to identify several key attributes to create a holistic, unique and distinctive experience.
From this, came the focus on telling the overarching story behind the highly handcrafted process and provenance of each brand. To showcase this rich variety, the showroom was conceptualized as a boutique jewel box, focused on the idea of exploration, forged craft and intense beauty. Adjacent to the theMART’s northern entrance, is an engraved, dark granite storefront with polished brass blade signs.
To catch the eyes of passersby and draw them into the House of Rohl, is a curvilinear chassis of powdercoated aluminum that supports a grid of boxes housing the plumbing fixtures on display. This gridded system, also serves as a framework for lighting fixtures—strips, pendants, and spotlights that are all magnetized, so they can be redistributed wherever and whenever needed. Within the chassis, each sub-brand in the House of Rohl collection has its own allocated area where finishes create a designated color zone. Warm lighting accentuates these zones, creating an inviting glow that greets visitors beyond the stone exterior. Panels housed within the framework use artistic photography and descriptive narratives to tell each unique brand’s story, providing visitors with a museum-like experience.
The pantry and office space in back of house is meant to provide a centralized location for their representatives to host both internal and external meetings, and to work remotely. Their new space provides an exciting framework to showcase the House of Rohls most exciting products and collaborative brands in Chicago’s infamous Merchandise Mart.
