Quarta & Armando Architecture Design Research 上海问和答建筑设计咨询有限公司

Home Base Showroom

Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN

Home Base Showroom

Quarta & Armando

MANUFACTURERS
Autodesk, Lumion, Dulux, Mapei, Adobe, Trimble

CLIENTS
Home Base International Co.ltd

DESIGN TEAM
Gianmaria Quarta, Michele Armando, Gu Tao, Shevaun Kasi Mistry

AREA
526 M²

YEAR
2019

LOCATION
Xuhui Qu, China

CATEGORY
Office Buildings, Showroom

Text description provided by architect.

Home Base is a tabletop company that works with the world’s best hotels and restaurants in creating bespoke, uniquely designed ceramic tableware to enhance dining experiences.

Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN
Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN

In 2019, it decided to relocate from a conventional office to a new space in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, and Quarta & Armando was given the task to make the most of the 320sqm, 8-meter-tall former industrial building, accommodate an ever-expanding team as well as create a memorable experience for visiting customers.

Office space or showroom? Quarta & Armando opted not to give preference to either, but rather set to create a single space in which the two functions act as polarized entities representing the two souls of the company: one inner-facing and research-oriented, the other outward-looking and convivial.

Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN
Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN

Visitors are led from a lofty reception space to the showroom area, where a dense hive of cabinets of different heights populates the different rooms, each dedicated to a single collection and its products.

Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN

The prevailing dark-grey tones of ash wood panels and painted steel serve as a discreet background for the back-lit display shelves, making each product stand out while allowing an overview of the whole collection from the main corridor.

The eye first lands on Ruyi, the company’s flagship porcelain collection, while other product series are displayed on the two sides within smaller, interconnected recesses. The common area is where office and showroom become one.

Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN
Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN
Home Base Showroom
© Peter Dixie_LOTAN

Looming across the full height of the building, it is an open and flexible platform meant to be used as an accommodating space for internal meetings as well as public-facing panels, discussions and product launches.


Home Base Showroom
Plans
Home Base Showroom
Plans

Quarta & Armando Architecture Design Research 上海问和答建筑设计咨询有限公司
Quarta & Armando Architecture Design Research 上海问和答建筑设计咨询有限公司
Xiangyang Road 97, room 615, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China 上海市徐汇襄阳北路97号615