Fact File
Architecture: Sydney L Godel & WETSTYLE Design Lab
Interior Design: Atelier Moderno & WETSTYLE Design Lab
Landscaping: Dubuc Architectes Paysagistes & WETSTYLE
Contractor: Frare & Gallant
Photo credit: Adrien Williams
Source: v2com
Manufacturer of premium-quality bath fixtures and furnishings WETSTYLE brand-new showroom in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, on Montreal’s South Shore, Canada, opened in January 2019, consolidating the brand’s manufacturing operations, executive offices, and showroom in a single location.
The showroom occupies the ground floor of a custom-designed 11,600 sqft building, located below the company’s corporate offices and state-of-the-art Design Lab, and connected via enclosed transitional corridor to the 30,000 sqft factory and operations facility. In addition to showcasing the brand’s elite product line, the showroom also features an open-air kitchen for hosting events, a museum-like section portraying aspects of product manufacturing, and a dedicated ‘WET-U’ training facility for the company’s agents, sales representatives, and design professionals.
Focused presentation
The challenge was to fill the showroom with distinct and intimate spaces, each highlighting an individual product, while maintaining the collective space’s open concept. Faced with an existing structure lined with expansive windows, there was also a need to eliminate outside distractions to ensure unwavering focus on the products.
In a contemporary space of white with black contrasts, floating ceiling elements provide the effect of walls rising from beneath the floor and into the ceiling. The non-obtrusive walls isolate each product zone in vignette-like fashion, invoking sentiments of environments reflective of the products in use. Atmospheric lighting sets the mood of each product zone via strips and spotlights, reflecting off a porcelain floor with marble-esque qualities that embrace the sophistication of the company’s high-end products.
Anchoring the vast space is a centralized, custom-built staircase that divides the showroom level from the office space above. Gold finishing highlight the floating stainless-steel structure, with walnut stairs providing a transition to an open space above. The warmth of the wood, the mood of the lighting, and clean, pure lines help distinguish the open space from the enclosed offices that surround it.
Carbon neutral ambitions
The design of the complex reflects the brand’s commitment to eco-friendly manufacturing and includes vacuum and air systems for purifying operations and controlling emissions. WETSTYLE is the only company in North America to have transitioned from petrochemical resins to soy and bio-based resins. Its proprietary material WETMAR BiO™ has been recognized in the green innovation category as the industry’s first recipe for soy and mineral stone used in the fabrication of composite bath fixtures.
In approaching the scale of the products, the architecture, and the outside environment, we created a forest of floating walls that zigzag through the open space to create a circuit presenting different décors for each product
Jean-Guy Chabauty, President, Atelier Moderno (Photo credit: Atelier Moderno)
Consolidating operations
The consolidated complex addresses the brand’s current and future needs, ensuring the operational efficiency required for the company’s long-term strategic plans for consistent growth and innovation. Expanded facilities for engineering, R&D, assembly, moulding, casting, finishing, and shipping, as well as major investments in machinery and a new ERP system, will enable the company to take on larger projects and to expand its product line.
The new facility showcases the company’s brand values and serves as a vehicle for exhibiting the tremendous level of detail, craftmanship, and passion invested in the making of its products that include bathtubs, sinks, shower bases, and furnishings – all of which display exceptional craftsmanship and the most environment-friendly materials.
