Bathroom luxury

THE epitome of home luxury has always been a breathtaking bathroom — from shimmering, glossy Italian tiles to opulent Jacuzzis, both the blessed rich and the world’s most prestigious hotels have always spent a disproportionate amount of money and time creating jaw-dropping bathrooms that the imagination can conceive.

While trendy designs have evolved from gaudy and over-decorated to smooth and minimalist, several key players have dominated the scene for decades. Roca, a Spanish company with roots in Gavà near Barcelona, first starting producing baths in 1929, and by the 1990s, Roca was exporting bathroom fittings to as far afield as the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Russia, Morocco, Argentina, Brazil and China.

Today, Roca’s commercial network spreads over 135 countries, supplied by its 76 production plants that are in turn staffed by over 20,000 employees. Last week, the company opened its very first Roca Experience Centre in Petaling Jaya, a new flagship showroom which is aimed at making its philosophy and products more accessible to Malaysians.

Under the stewardship of Josep Delicado, managing director of Roca Malaysia and Singapore, the centre houses two top notch brands: Roca and JohnssonSuisse. Roca is the world leader in the bathroom industry, while the Malaysian-incorporated Johnson Suisse has become a household name.

Spanning approximately 8,000 sq feet, the Roca Experience Centre was designed by a renowned Spanish architectural firm and features a symmetrical floor plan that is irregular in form. The challenge was to create a space with a personality of its own, one that offers easy and fluid direction for visitors to wander through that is completely integrated into its surroundings. In line with the brand’s philosophy, history, and values, this new space has also been designed as a key tool to display Roca’s product innovations and promoting the brand’s commitment to the people and the environment.

“Malaysia, and especially the Klang Valley, is a strategic business hub that offers countless opportunities. Ever since its arrival in the Asian market in 1999, our brand has been committed to bolstering its presence there by adapting itself to local needs and idiosyncrasies. The Roca showroom provides a further clear example of this commitment and aims to become a benchmark meeting point for sector professionals,” explained Raimundo Garcia Figueras, Roca’s senior managing director of the executive board for Asia’s bathroom products division.

Through the heavy utilisation of the minimalist concept, the Roca Experience Centre exudes a pure and spacious feel, enabling the stars of the showroom — the range of products — to shine. All the various product lines are ingeniously spaced out, making the sprawling space feel cosy, comfortable, and easy to manoeuvre. Among the key highlights of the experience centre are Fineceramic and Smart Toilets such as the in-tank Meridian, in-wash Alba, in-wash Inspira, in-wash Meridian, and Multiclean Gap.

Another noteworthy collection is the Armani/Roca range, which has become a symbol of luxury around the world. The balance of fulfilling all the design criteria for a bathroom in its purest state and fully integrating elegant and practical solutions in a very natural and fluid way is made possible thanks to a wide range of products and finishes while maintaining the inimitable style and philosophy that Giorgio Armani applies to home decor design.

The Armani/Roca partnership started in 2010, when Armani selected Roca to start-up a joint project for bathroom spaces. The collaboration has given rise to an integrated concept for bathrooms, which is characterised by its design, discrete luxury and sensuality, as well as by the innovative technological solutions it offers. A careful selection of materials, textures and combinations has created a comfortable, harmonious space with an elegant, personal ambience.

With a concept that reads, “Everything for the bathroom everywhere in the world,” Roca reflects the aspiration to generate business in all bathroom space categories and in all markets in which the brand operates, based on systematically harnessing opportunities. In fact, their comprehensive bathroom space offering and its industrial and service capacity have enabled it to continue winning major projects worldwide. To date, Roca’s products have been installed in the Eiffel Tower in Paris as well as the Olympic Village for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

The Roca Experience Centre is located on the Ground Floor, East Wing, Quattro West, 4 Lorong Persiaran Barat, Petaling Jaya. Call (03) 7952 2522 for more information.

This article first appeared in the “Live it!” segment of The Edge Financial Daily, on April 12, 2016. Subscribe to The Edge Financial Daily here.