Virgile & Partners, the integrated retail, hotel and restaurant specialist within global creative business, Imagination, has designed Ganache, the patisserie at the Ritz Carlton in Bangalore.
The largest residential and hotel developer in Bangalore, Nitesh Estates, tasked Imagination with the project following the agency’s redesign of restaurants within The Oberoi Group in India.
The brief was to create a retail space to animate the entrance architectural promenade and be an attraction in its own merit. The first and last impression when arriving or leaving the hotel is of great importance and the space needed to appeal to all senses. The immediacy of the smells and flavours of the products needed to create a strong and memorable effect that would welcome audiences and entice them to spend time and enjoy their shopping.
The name Ganache conveys the elegance and sophistication of both the store design and the variety of products on offer. From the best cakes and pastries to a selection of the best chocolates, coffees and teas from around the world, everything communicates sensual beauty. A selected offer of gifts, such as spa products, candles and incense burners, complement the exquisite patisserie offering.
Ganache’s design style is a harmonisation of calmness and radiance. The architecture of the three transparent interconnecting glass boxes have an eye catching quality in its contemporary style, yet rich and elegant in detail, with the use of refined materials, such as carved slabs of marble and matt bronze metal work.
The scale of the glass volumes is imposing and the strong framing to the entrances and interior metal and glass structures add a dramatic effect, complemented by the covered passages that bridge across pools of water.
This integration of water to the architectural design adds to the sense of calmness and serenity this ‘temple of pleasure’ radiates.
Materials and finishes complete the design, combining the use of white marble cut-in faceted shapes to form a subtle pattern, matt bronze metal and dark and lighter wood finishes, differentiating the offer of the various glass boxes.
Product presentation has been considered to the very last detail in order to enhance the natural appeal of the offer. Space has been created around the product in order to appreciate its qualities, displaying the offer on long simple slabs and taking full advantage of wall presentation by using its generous height, adding theatricality to the displays.
The elegant graphic identity has an immediate recognisable and memorable quality and is complemented by exquisite packaging and stylish gift wrapping making the simplest of product look like a million dollars as well as a piece of advertising for the Ritz Carlton new retail concept.
Carlos Virgile, Global Head of Retail and Leisure at Imagination and Founder of Virgile + Partners said: “We aimed to create a new concept of luxury retail that is less conventional in the context of a sophisticated and elegant hotel experience such as a Ritz Carlton and to position the offer as an unusual attraction for the hotel guests as well as for the local gourmets.”
Ganache opened its doors to the public in the summer of 2014.
Bang at the Ritz Carlton, the roof top terrace bar with panoramic views over the city of Bangalore, also designed by Imagination, will open in autumn 2014.
