The motor vehicle market is a tightly contested one, with all major brands revamping their showrooms and facilities to make the customer’s experience a mutually beneficial one. KIA Motors, who recently opened their new 3500m2  dealership near Clearwater Mall, west of Johannesburg, have strict corporate identity specifications that all dealerships have to implement which has resulted in a very bold, bright and airy KIA showroom.

As much street frontage for the vehicle showroom and pre-owned vehicle showroom is one of the pre-requisites for a KIA dealership with the service reception needing to be as close to the service drop-off area as possible. The servicing area should be linked directly to the showroom, thereby enabling new models to be visible to entice an existing customer-base.

Guilherme Pereira da Silva, Senior Architectural Technologist at G L Architects said “KIA Motors have high design standards not only for the construction of the entire dealership building but also in terms of fittings and finishes. There were a few challenges at the new dealership one of which was the elliptical curve to the showroom with the entire showroom façade being clad with aluminium - waterproofing the cladding and establishing a neat finish was a painstaking exercise. The showroom bulkhead pattern and drift line had to be perfectly executed due to it being closed off with a stretching ceiling material  which was unforgiving material to work with, as once it has been cut to drawing measurements it cannot be altered”.

The design of KIA showrooms cater for a handover bay and a delivery bay with the inclusion of a separate entrance for new vehicle deliveries to be placed in the showroom for immediate display purposes. It is important that customers are afforded sufficient, well maintained, safe parking and walking areas, so the quality and even laying of bricks to these areas is crucial.

With KIA dealerships requiring such extensive frontage, the bricks utilised for such a project need to offer not only attractiveness, but durability and strength due to the anticipated multi-faceted traffic throughput. Giuricich Bros Construction was tasked with the building of the KIA dealership with the tender for the project stipulating the utilisation of clay stock brick.

Oconbrick, a leading supplier of clay stock brick, won the contract to supply the clay stocks to be utilised on the forecourt and surrounding areas. The project, which commenced in May 2012, was completed in January 2013. Over 360,000 clay stock bricks were utilised. The final finish gives the dealership a very smooth, clean and light brick finish, which not only creates a sense of space, but is suitable for forecourt signage to be painted upon it, which is clearly visible to staff and visitors to the dealership.

Adrian Lawless, of Giuricich Bros Construction said “We have worked with Oconbrick before, and found the quality of their product to be good; it is well suited to the KIA project. A positive factor with Oconbrick is their reliability and technical support. Their deliveries are always on schedule, thereby eliminating delays to the project”.

Oconbrick products have been utilised in South Africa across a wide range of residential, commercial and golf estate properties including interior use. They are offer good brick strength, durability, water absorption, superior thermal insulation, low carbon footprint and are built to last. They have a nil-to-slight efflorescence, water absorption of approximately 11%, with dimensions of 220mm x 100mm x 70 mm available.

Further information is available from: Malebusa Sebatane, Marketing Manager, Technicrete Tel: 011 674 6957 Cell: 078 803 9863 email: malebusa.sebatane@murrob.com

Issued on behalf of Technicrete by: SJC Creative, Contact Sue Charlton Tel: 011 781 6178 Cell: 082 579 4263 email: sjc@worldonline.co.za

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