Greenspace has designed the largest, most advanced Toyota retail and service flagship in the UAE for Al-Futtaim Motors. The modern retail and service space is spread across five levels, 14,000 square metres and houses more than 80 new and used vehicles.

Called ‘The Toyota Wave’, the building offers a series of customer zones, including a digital design studio, a café, play space for children – complete with electric cars and 100-metre indoor track, a gallery, handover lounge and a service centre.

In order to understand the region and the many types of customer journey the flagship would need to cater for, Greenspace ran a series of workshops with Al-Futtaim and Toyota’s retail and service teams. 

From this work, a legacy-driving idea of ‘Passion for Better’ became the strategic focus and inspiration for us to design not only the interior architecture but all forms of human, physical and digital interaction.

The curved lines of the Wave exterior are echoed along the length of each floor by suspended white fins that are contoured from the front to the back of each floor.

The flooring on each level is shaped around two colours of large Italian ceramic slabs, creating a fluid space that feels ‘simple and mathematical yet soft and emotional’.

The Toyota Play Space is where children can race electric cars on a 100-metre indoor track, watched by parents on a feature staircase that links two floors with integrated platform seating.

A 3D printer lab, Toyota design drawing and modelling stations and VR headsets are also on hand to occupy, educate and inspire future Toyota customers.

Digital screens on each floor provide customers with information and interactivity through multiple touchpoints. Printed materials and traditional POS have all been removed with a focus instead on digital experiences guided by hosts.

In the Toyota Design Studio, customers can configure their own vehicle accessories, colours and materials using physical and digital design tools. Whilst around the wider space large video walls project marketing campaigns.

The Toyota Service Centre is where customers can pre-book and drive into an air-conditioned check-in, before being hosted to private consultation rooms and hospitality in the Toyota Refuel café which serves refreshments for 100 guests along with WiFi, charging-points and entertainment.

Creating circulation and customer journey planning were a large part of the project – resulting in the construction of two new escalator cores, a vehicle elevator, and  50-metre covered bridge incorporating moving walkways that span the retail showroom and service centre workshops. 

Herman Miller’s Public Office system, designed by Yves Behar, is used throughout the showroom, in red, grey and white to visually link with Toyota’s brand colours. 

This system works alongside the digital screens and does away with the need to create typical semi-enclosed sales desks in the product spaces that would disrupt the retail experience.