Located in the Foster & Partners’ designed Tiller and Lock mixed-use development on City Road, Islington, Carter Owers Studio (COS) have designed the Orangebox furniture showroom and workspace to feel calm and inviting, whilst inspiring Orangebox clients to explore creative possibilities through customisation of the Orangebox product offering. Read more
COS set out to create impact around product design by foregrounding product performance and clearly communicating the brand’s customisation capabilities through the wide-ranging choice of materials and finishes.
The new showroom has been downsized from five floors at the previous site, to a single floor at Tiller and Lock, enabling COS to build a more logical, flow-through customer journey through a series of curated scenarios, each focusing on a different aspect of the furniture and architectural products.
Establishing a relaxed, informal and welcoming ambience was an important part of the brief. Orangebox were keen that the showroom felt open and inviting, not just to clients and out-of-town sales staff, but also to architects and designers wanting to base themselves from the showroom either to test-drive furniture or work through workplace designs with their clients.
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The adjacencies between different product ranges have been carefully considered to create focus and space around each product zone. Deep window bays have been converted into a series of booths. Lining the walls in acoustic fabric and obscuring the bustle of City Road with reeded window film has created a serene setting from which to display smaller groups of furniture.
The generously proportioned Materials Library is an important part of the showroom experience, a zone where clients can touch down after a tour of the showroom floor, view product samples and finishes, explore components and details and finalise designs and orders. The space is designed to bring people together, doubling up as a flexible events space for talks and launches and day to day as a social space with a kitchen and dining area and adjoining outdoor terrace.
The showroom is bookended by two defined areas for hospitality: an open kitchen bar at the reception and canteen table at the back of the showroom, for staff to host customers, or hold informal meetings with colleagues.
