Initially, the brief was to design a static space that had a bar and some chairs on a built-up floor with marketing material displayed all over it. Our response to that was... ‘why?’ As designers, our role is to challenge expectations and make people think, so we responded to the brief with a totally unexpected concept: a space that had no fixed boundary but also contained activity and intrigue.

We chose to focus on fetishising the product, to display it with a sense of dominance and artefact. The principle concept looks towards an abstraction of water, to create a fluid boundary within which the products could float. Like a body of water, the volume produced by hanging tassels obscured the internal spaces from beyond to create an ethereal floating cube, while on closer engagement spaces were carved from the whole to enable movement of people and prominence of product. The mirrored plinths which anchored the tapware range became islands of activity, allowing viewing and appreciation of the product in ‘display’ mode, and tall tables for congregating around in ‘party’ mode.

The concept seeks to explore the relationship between spatial experience and human interaction/ engagement. Transparent and intriguing, the space felt light and gracious - standing out from the generally cluttered designs of industry exhibition events.