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      Allsteel’s Experience Center reimagines the role of the contract furniture showroom

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      Promotion: workplace furniture brand Allsteel’s latest showroom in Chicago is designed to showcase its latest products and share new workplace concepts  through architectural features and experiences.

      Designed by Partners by Design and located in the Fulton Market district in Chicago, the 24,000-square-foot Experience Center houses more than 150 products by Allsteel, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, Normann Copenhagen, Zilenzio and Corral arranged across various workspace environments.
      Allsteel’s Experience Centre is based in ChicagoFunctioning like neighbourhoods, these workspaces were designed to reflect evolving work behaviours with spaces for working together, apart, or somewhere in between.
      They include micro-collaborative spaces within the larger environments, an executive retreat space, an all-day cafe, an open-concept lounge area designed to feel like an extension of the outdoors and a lab where customers can test products and materials first-hand.
      The Experience Centre showcases its latest productsAllsteel said that its Experience Center was a move away from a traditional showroom format – where the only function is to showcase product – towards a place for education, inspiration and collaboration.

      “We wanted to design a place that would celebrate and encourage collaboration, be a destination for education and inspiration, be an experience for our clients trying to solve meaningful workplace challenges and transform their ways of working,” said Allsteel’s director of brand and marketing Natalie Johansen Murray.
      The brand aims for the Experience Centre to be a place for encouragement and collaboration”We partnered and consulted with a wide range of local and national designers and creative visionaries to bring this space to life,” Johansen Murray continued.
      “Each of our partners along the journey really challenged us to reimagine the role of a traditional contract furniture showroom – pushing us to explore and bring forward new architectural features and experiences.”
      Products incorporated range from a flexible kit-of-parts that enable office layouts to be easily extended or adapted along with the needs of a growing business to a collection of accessories inspired by the traditional Shaker rail-and-peg system that allows workers to store and display objects that express their individuality.
      The brand aims for its Experience Centre to be a place for education, inspiration and collaborationAllsteel welcomed partners, clients and industry leaders to the new showroom for the first time at this year’s Fulton Market Design Days from 12 to 14 June 2023.
      “We are thrilled to open our doors and welcome our clients, the design community and commercial real estate professionals to our new Experience Center,” said Johansen Murray.
      “Throughout the entire design journey, we focused on developing a space to celebrate and encourage collaboration, a space that is designed to help our clients and design community do more.”
      Allsteel said that its Experience Center is a move away from a traditional showroom formatThe Allsteel Experience Center is located at 345 N Morgan, third floor, Fulton Market District, Chicago, IL 60607. Take a 360-degree tour of the Experience Center or visit Allsteel’s website for more information.
      Partnership content
      This article was written by Dezeen for Allsteel as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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      Roar recreates dizzying Indian stepwells in Jaipur Rugs’ Dubai showroom

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      UAE-based studio Roar has paid homage to the Escher-esque stepwells of India in its interior design for Jaipur Rugs’ showroom in Dubai, which features cascading, rainbow-coloured staircases.

      The Jaipur Rugs showroom, the Indian brand’s first in the Middle East, is located in the creative district of Aserkal, in one of the former industrial area’s previously abandoned warehouses.
      Roar’s design for the space nods to the architecture of Jaipur, the rug manufacturer’s home city, and in particular its famous stepwells — reservoirs built with staggered terraces and dizzying sets of stairs all the way down into their depths.
      The Jaipur Rugs Dubai showroom is designed with reference to India’s stepwells”The design concept was born from a simple sketch that I did after my first meeting with the client,” Roar founder and architect Pallavi Dean told Dezeen.
      “I was so inspired by the stepwells that I’d seen in Jaipur during my first visit that I wanted to bring them to life in my design,” she added.

      “I wanted to strip the idea to its bare minimum though, and work within its architectural purity, in order to avoid any plain pastiche.”
      The stairs are carpeted in a gradient of rainbow huesIn Dean’s design, the repeating staircases feature across three of the walls, making a striking impression in the double-height space while connecting the ground-floor browsing area to the offices and sales suites on the mezzanine.
      The arches that are typical to stepwells also feature in the 780-square-metre showroom, forming doorways or alcoves wallpapered with decorative rugs.
      The hues in these rug displays are echoed in the carpet on the stairs, which is rendered in a jewel-toned rainbow colour gradient starting at indigo on one side of the space and ending in ruby red.
      Some of the stairs read to alcoves with rug displaysDean called the construction of the staircases a “structural feat” that required navigating challenging approval processes.
      “We had to ensure the steps were safe to use by installing a glass balustrade, which gives the impression that they’re floating when they’re actually carefully enclosed!” she said.

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      Also nestled between the staircases on the ground floor are two rooms described as immersive experiences, the Sapphire and Emerald rooms, which are covered floor to ceiling with rugs custom-made by Jaipur Rugs’ weavers as part of the brand’s Manchaha intiative.
      In the project, the artisans design the rugs themselves spontaneously on the loom as they weave, using leftover yarn from the industry.
      Two “immersive” rooms are carpeted in rugs designed by Jaipur Rugs’ weaversThey would typically use a broader range of colours for the rugs in this series, but were briefed to work with emerald and sapphire tones for the showroom and given the precise dimensions.
      The lack of sound in these rooms, created by the acoustic properties of the rugs, adds a dramatic dimension to visitors’ experience, according to Dean.
      One room is emerald and the other is sapphire huedNext to the rooms, along the fourth wall, is the showroom’s rug library, with custom-made sliding panels allowing visitors to browse freely.
      The walls and floors are finished with a warm-grey micro-cement and textured paint, forming a neutral base for the colourful features.
      Metallic rose gold features in doorframes, cabinetry and other details, in another reference to Jaipur, which is sometimes called the Pink City.
      Metallic rose gold touches nod to Jaipur’s nickname of the “Pink City””All of our designs come from a place of empathy, and this one is no exception,” Dean said. “We always endeavour to understand what the client is trying to achieve – here, the client was trying to create a bold statement for their first flagship store in the Middle East.”
      “It also had to be an experiential space, which can be intuitively navigated by its users. This is why, for example, we decided to build bespoke rug libraries with sliding doors for clients to flick through instead of having the rugs stacked on the floor, which, in my opinion, are so inconvenient to browse!”
      The showroom is located in a formerly abandoned warehouseDean founded Roar in 2013. The studio’s past projects include the interiors for cafe Drop Coffee and the Nursery of the Future, both in Dubai.
      Last year it announced it was expanding into digital design after purchasing two plots of land for a showroom in the metaverse.

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      &Tradition designs entire apartment in takeover of Copenhagen townhouse

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      Danish furniture brand &Tradition has opened the doors to a four-storey showroom in Copenhagen, featuring a complete apartment and rooms designed by Jaime Hayon and Space Copenhagen.

      Unveiled during 3 Days of Design in an exhibition titled Under One Roof, &Tradition’s design team has transformed the interior of a century-old townhouse on the historic Kronprinsessegade.
      The Apartment takes over the top floor of the townhouseThe top floor has become The Apartment, an entire home interior that is described by Els Van Hoorebeeck, creative and brand director for &Tradition, as “the cherry on the cake”.
      Despite being completely kitted out in the brand’s products, it was designed to have the feel of a lived-in space rather than a showroom.
      Designed by &Tradition’s in-house team, the spaces combine classic and contemporary”When you enter, you feel this balance between colours and neutrals, between wood tones and glass or metal, and between classic and contemporary designs,” Van Hoorebeeck told Dezeen.

      “There’s a lot of product in there, but you don’t notice it,” she said.
      The bedroom showcases a quilted bedspread by Swedish-Danish duo All the Way to ParisSpanish designer Hayon has created two rooms on the first floor, which give an insight into the creative process behind products he has developed for &Tradition.
      The first, called Cabinet of Curiosities, features a glass display case filled with objects and drawings, revealing the forms and images that inspire Hayon’s designs.
      Jaime Hayon has created a room called Cabinet of CuriositiesThe second presents new works by Hayon – including the Momento vessels and a limited edition of his Formakami pendant lamp – in a scenography framed by large silhouette characters. This room is called Teatro Surreal.
      “We felt it was important to show the world that his products come out of,” said Van Hoorebeeck.
      Jaime Hayon’s Teatro Surreal creates a scenography for his new productsThe two rooms by Danish interiors studio Space Copenhagen can be found on the second floor.
      These spaces include a studio and, building on the studio’s experience in hotel and restaurant design, a dining room. Here, shades of green and brown combine with fresh herbs and plants to bring a sense of nature.

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      New products are peppered throughout these two rooms.
      They include the Trace storage cabinets, which are filled with kitchen utensils and tableware, and the Collect rugs.
      Space Copenhagen has created a dining room in shades of green and brownFounded in 2010 by Martin Kornbek Hansen, &Tradition combines contemporary and classic design in its collections.
      The brand has been based at 4 Kronprinsessegade since 2018, but the building primarily served as a headquarters, with offices located on the upper levels.
      Verner Panton’s Flowerpot lamps feature in several roomsThe company has now moved its offices to another nearby location, which made it possible to open the entire townhouse up to the public for the first time during 3 Days of Design.
      Other spaces revealed in Under One Roof include the Verner Panton Lounge, which is dedicated to mid-century pieces by the late Danish designer such as the 1968 Flowerpot lamps.
      An archive room is filled with original drawings and vintage samplesThere are also rooms designed to appeal to the senses. These include the Listening Lounge, a relaxed space filled with music, and Mnemonic, which centres around a range of scents.
      Other key spaces include a “workshop” showcasing the possibilities of the modular workspace furniture, an archive filled with original drawings and vintage samples, a cafe and a shop.
      A cafe and shop are located on the ground floorVan Hoorebeeck hopes the spaces will help tell the stories behind the products.
      “What we wanted to do here is to create a whole universe,” she said. “Every room is based on showing a different atmosphere between contemporary and classic designs.”
      “Now the layout of the house is set and every year we’ll just adapt it,” she added.
      The photography is courtesy of &Tradition.
      3 Days of Design took place in venues around Copenhagen from 7 to 9 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for information, plus a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Hollie Bowden converts London pub into pared-back jewellery showroom

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      Lime-washed walls meet aluminium display fixtures in this minimalist studio and showroom that designer Hollie Bowden has devised for London brand Completedworks.

      Set over two floors of a former pub in Marylebone, it provides space for Completedworks to design and display its jewellery and ceramics, as well as to host an array of craft-focused classes.
      Hollie Bowden has designed a studio and showroom for CompletedworksThe brand was established in 2013 and up until now, has largely been sold via high-end department stores such as Dover Street Market and Liberty. But founder Anna Jewsbury felt it was time for Completedworks to have its own brick-and-mortar space.
      “We increasingly had clients asking to come and see our pieces in person but felt that we didn’t have a space that felt considered and reflected our vision,” she said. “We wanted people to be able to enter our world and get to know us, and for us to get to know them.”
      Display shelving was crafted from lustrous aluminiumFor the design of the showroom, Jewsbury worked with London-based designer Hollie Bowden, who naturally looked to the brand’s jewellery for inspiration.

      This can be seen for example in the hammered-metal door handles that appear throughout the studio and directly reference the creased design of the gold Cohesion earrings.
      A modular display system in the showroom is clad in lilac linen”[Completedworks] is known for the beauty of the textural surfaces and flowing almost baroque forms,” Bowden explained. “We developed a display language that played off that, with minimal details and strict lines.”
      Almost every surface throughout the studio is washed in beige-toned lime paint, with only a few slivers of the original brick walls and a worn metal column left exposed near the central staircase.

      Hollie Bowden channels the ambience of dimly lit gentlemen’s clubs for London office

      Bowden used brushed aluminium to create a range of display fixtures, including chunky plinths and super-slender shelving units supported by floor-to-ceiling poles.
      The space also houses a couple of angular aluminium counters for packing orders that include discrete storage for boxes and subtle openings, through which tissue paper or bubble wrap can be pulled.
      Shoji-style storage cabinets can be seen in the officeA slightly more playful selection of colours and materials was used for the studio’s custom furnishings.
      In the main showroom, there’s a modular display island sheathed in lilac linen. Meanwhile in the office, designer Byron Pritchard – who is also Bowden’s partner – created a gridded wooden cabinet inlaid with translucent sheets of paper, intended to resemble a traditional Japanese shoji screen.
      Hammered-metal door handles in the studio resemble Completedworks’ earringsThis isn’t Bowden’s first project in London’s affluent Marylebone neighbourhood.
      Previously, the designer created an office for real estate company Schönhaus, decking the space out with dark-stained oak and aged leather to emulate the feel of a gentleman’s club.
      The photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.

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      BoND uses pink scaffolding at New York “embassy” for fashion brand PatBo

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      Architecture studio BoND has designed the New York headquarters for Brazilian fashion brand PatBo, which features pink scaffolding and rugs based on drawings by Roberto Burle Marx.

      The office and showroom for PatBo occupies a 7,000-square-foot (650-square-metre) loft, which spans the entire seventh floor of a historic building on Fifth Avenue.
      The PatBo showroom is located in a light-filled loft in New York’s Flatiron DistrictAs the brand’s global headquarters, this space serves multiple purposes: showcasing the brand’s apparel; providing office space for staff; hosting buyers and events.
      “Our biggest challenge was to divide the space according to the showroom’s new program while keeping its loft-like openness,” said BoND co-founder Noam Dvir.
      To divide the open space, BoND used pink-painted scaffolding that doubles as clothing railsTo create partitions that double as displays, the designers chose scaffolding elements on which clothing can be hung and shelving can be installed.

      “They are so readily available, so New York in their character, and very easy to adapt to different conditions,” said Daniel Rauchwerger, BoND’s other co-founder. “Moreover, they’re inexpensive and have a younger, fresher feel that works so well with the spirit of a PatBo studio.”
      The showroom also serves as an office space for the PatBo teamScaffolding has been used in a variety of retail environments for its versatility and ease of installation, including a bright yellow Calvin Klein store transformed by Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby, and a boutique for Wardrobe NYC designed by Jordana Maisie.
      Painted pale pink in the PatBo showroom, the industrial scaffolding takes on a more feminine appearance, which sets the tone for the rest of the showroom.
      Feminine touches like pleated pendant lights align with the brand’s aestheticCurved couches, pleated pendant lamps and tambour panelling all add to the soft aesthetic and further align with PatBo’s brand expression.
      Circular fitting rooms surrounded by curtains allow clients to try on the colourful clothing in the main showrooom.
      Private offices feature tambour panelling and a mix of furnitureA second showroom area for hosting buyer appointments and casting calls includes minimal clothing racks with brass rails and oak frames.
      This space is closed off from the reception, but still visible through large glass panels that allow light from the exterior windows to pass through.
      The historic building overlooks Fifth AvenuePrivate offices along the far side of the loft also feature glass doors for the same purpose, and add to the feeling of openness and transparency throughout the showroom.
      “It’s not meant to be too precious or delicate, but rather a place where a group of creative professionals can feel encouraged to move things around and make it their own,” said Dvir.

      Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby transform Calvin Klein store with yellow scaffolding

      Atop the wooden floors are rugs based on the drawings of Brazilian modernist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, designed in collaboration with São Paulo-based Punto e Filo.
      Colourful furniture and potted plants also contribute to the Brazilian vibe in the space, and complement PatBo’s vibrant garments.
      Rugs throughout the space are based on the drawings of Brazilian modernist Roberto Burle MarxAt the back of the showroom is a bar area, featuring a pink stone counter with rounded corners, and a sink placed within a curved niche that has mirrored sides.
      “This is a space that combines elements of office, retail, and hospitality,” said Rauchwerger. “With that, it is able to serve as a real embassy for PatBo as a brand.”
      A bar area with pink stone counters is used for hosting eventsRauchwerger and Dvir, both former journalists, founded BoND in 2019 after working as architects at OMA, WeWork and more.
      Their studio’s previous projects have included the renovation of a dark Chelsea apartment into a light-filled home.
      The photography is by Blaine Davis.
      Project credits:
      Project team: Daniel Rauchwerger, Noam Dvir, Liza Tedeschi

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      Studio Giancarlo Valle transforms historic Stockholm cinema into tactile rug showroom

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      Interior design firm Studio Giancarlo Valle has turned an early 20th-century cinema in Stockholm into a showroom for rug company Nordic Knots, restoring its original stone details and adding warm wood and brushed steel.

      Mottled green marble covers the walls of the 150-square-metre showroom, which is located in the central Östermalm area of Stockholm.
      As part of the revamp Studio Giancarlo Valle restored the existing marble – a traditional Swedish type of stone called Kolmårdsmarmor – as well as the building’s grand central staircase.
      The showroom is located in a former cinema in ÖstermalmThe studio also added more contemporary touches, such as brushed stainless-steel details and walnut and oak furniture.
      “The interior is historic and we wanted to preserve the architectural details, so we restored the terrazzo and plaster,” studio founder Giancarlo Valle told Dezeen.

      “The building is a 20th-century former movie theatre and it was critical to maintain a sense of grandness when entering the space,” he added.
      Green marble from Sweden clads the wallsNordic Knots’ co-founder Liza Laserow wanted the interior to feature as many of the original details in the 1918 building as possible.
      “During the demolition of some old closets, we discovered the original floor to the building from the early 1900s – a muted green terrazzo with a red and white checkerboard,” Laserow told Dezeen.
      “Discovering the original flooring made us realise that we wanted to use terrazzo throughout, as the green colour in the original terrazzo matched the green marble on the walls perfectly.”
      The brand managed to find a Swedish company that could replicate the original terrazzo to cover the entire floor area.
      Rugs designed by Giancarlo Valle decorate the spaceThe stone floors and walls are complemented by a variety of natural materials.
      “To balance out the existing stone and terrazzo, we brought in warmer, more tactile materials like pine, oak, and walnut,” Valle said.
      Oak and walnut shelves decorate the walls of the Sample Bar, a room where customers can see samples of different Nordic Knots rugs, and where Studio Giancarlo Valle introduced custom-made oak lounge chairs.
      The Sample Bar features wooden shelving and steel furnitureValle also added brushed-steel touches to the Nordic Knots showroom, including on its custom-made steel and walnut coffee bar in the main gallery area and a table in the Sample Bar.
      The furniture throughout is designed in reference to the building, such as the curved front of the coffee bar that reflects the shape of its doorposts.

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      Laserow and co-founder Fabian Berglund had previously worked with Valle on a series of rugs for the company, which resulted in four designs, including an all-beige rug with a pattern of open hands and a red rug with flower buds on it.
      These are used to decorate the walls and floors of the showroom.
      Meeting rooms are located in the back of the buildingAt the back of the building sit the company’s meeting rooms and office spaces, which feature wooden furniture and a colour palette of saturated blues and mustard yellows.
      “The new interiors very much honour the building’s history,” Valle said.
      “We were careful to preserve the historic architectural details, along with the feeling of entering a grand theatre, when designing the space.”
      The original terrazzo floor is replicated throughout the spaceThe showroom opened during this year’s edition of Stockholm Design Week, which also featured an exhibition of “functional art” by Danish studio Tableau and a virtual apartment.
      Studio Giancarlo Valle’s designs have previously been used for projects including a showroom in a Brooklyn warehouse and a co-working company founded by Yves Béhar.
      The photography is courtesy of Nordic Knots.

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      Coil + Drift opens lighting studio and showroom in the Catskills

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      Lighting studio Coil + Drift has opened an office, showroom and production facility in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York that places modern elements in a barn-like building.

      Coil + Drift founder John Sorensen-Jolink, who relocated to the area in 2021, has created a new home for his brand in a barn-like structure surrounded by nature.
      Coil + Drift’s new space in the Catskills showcases the brand’s products”By relocating their queer-owned design business to the countryside, Coil + Drift is sparking a visceral conversation between people in a thriving rural creative community about how what we make defines who we are,” said the studio.
      The building encompasses 3,000 square feet (280 square metres) and boasts tall ceilings, which are painted white along with its plywood-panelled walls.
      The showroom includes an office space, defined by a chocolate-brown rugThe space is divided between a combined office and showroom, and a production facility where an in-house team now creates all of the company’s lighting designs.

      In one corner of the showroom sits a black wood-burning stove, with a flue that extends through the roof, next to a pile of chopped logs used to fuel it.
      Furniture is displayed on stepped plinths, accompanied by lighting aboveChocolate-brown area rugs contrast the pale concrete floors, defining the entrance, the office space and a spot by the fire in lieu of walls or partitions.
      Plinths are used to raise furniture designs, arranged in styled vignettes along with lighting, plants and small accessories.

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      More objects are displayed on wooden shelves of varying lengths, held up at different heights on thin golden rods.
      Industrial-looking metal and glass doors mounted on rolling tracks separate the showroom from the workshop, which is located in an adjoining room.
      The showroom features a white ceiling and walls, and a pale concrete floorOn show are several new additions to popular Coil + Drift collections, such as a floor version of the Yama table lamp and a “mobile-like” chandelier that joins the Atlas series.
      Also to coincide with its move and expansion, the company has launched a trade-focused online platform for its products.
      The building also houses a production facility behind industrial-style doorsCoil + Drift’s previous projects have included styling a townhouse in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighbourhood for Hatchet Design.
      Sorensen-Jolink, a former dancer, is one of many creatives that moved from New York City to nearby rural areas, either during or following the Covid-19 pandemic.
      Coil + Drift founder John Sorensen-Jolink relocated to the Catskills in 2021 before opening the new studioUpstate New York, and particularly the Hudson Valley and Catskills area, was already growing in popularity as a destination for artists and designers before the lockdowns, thanks to its reputation for vintage furniture shopping and art institutions.
      Then low property prices and high demand for space and fresh air sparked an exodus to the region, when many bought second homes or relocated permanently.
      The photography is by Zach Hyman.

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      Karimoku opens Kyoto showroom informed by traditional houses and temple gardens

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      Designer Keiji Ashizawa has created the interior of Japanese furniture brand Karimoku’s second showroom, which features a combination of its own wooden furniture and pieces by local artists and artisans.

      Set in a three-storey building, the brand describes Karimoku Commons Kyoto as a “hybrid space”, which will function as a showroom and also house office spaces for employees.
      The space is located inside a former machiya – a traditional Japanese wooden townhouse – in Kyoto, a city known for its temples, Shinto shrines and gardens.
      The showroom is located in a Kyoto townhouseAshizawa, who has worked with Karimoku for years and also designed its first showroom in Tokyo, looked to the history of both the city and the building when designing the interior.
      “I really wanted to use the language of the townhouse and also took inspiration from Kyoto gardens,” Ashizawa told Dezeen.

      For the showroom’s ground floor area, he drew on the doma areas in traditional Japanese homes, which had bare dirt floors and functioned as a bridge between the indoors and the outdoors.
      It features wood furniture and wood panelling by KarimokuHere, Ashizawa placed furniture in light-coloured wood, including chairs by British architect Norman Foster and pieces by Danish studio Norm Architects and Ashizawa himself.
      The floor is grey concrete, which was matched by pale-grey plaster walls and a ceiling in the same colour.
      Art and ceramics by Japanese artists decorate the spaceWooden slats, of a kind traditionally used in Kyoto homes and stores to let light into buildings while maintaining privacy, cover parts of the glazing at the front of the room.
      Light wooden panelling by Karimoku hides built-in storage spaces and functions as a shelf.
      The first floor has a darker colour paletteOn the first floor, Ashizawa chose to use a darker colour palette, with furniture pieces in smoked oak wood and flooring and wall panels in dark wood.
      “When you visit a tourism house or a temple in Kyoto, the old wood, like on the temple floors, is a very dark colour,” he said. “I thought such a colour had to be the key colour [for the project].”
      The layout of this area also drew on the walkways and paths of Kyoto’s temple gardens.
      “It’s more of a guide to how to articulate the space,” Ashizawa explained. “We can think of the furniture as an art piece or a stone – it’s a kind of installation.”
      A wall alcove functions as a tokonoma display spaceThe top floor of Karimoku Commons Kyoto will function as a “library space” and showcase the latest collections and collaborations from the contemporary Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory brands.
      Throughout the showroom, earthy ceramics and rough-hewn sculptures by Japanese artists were used as decoration, which add to the organic feel brought by the wood.

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      Pieces by ceramics brand Nota Shop in the nearby Shiga prefecture and vases by Kyoto artist Ai Ono were among the objects chosen for the space by stylist Yumi Nakata, who worked with Ashizawa on the project.
      These were placed on tables and shelves as well as in wall recesses informed by traditional Japanese tokonoma alcoves, where homeowners would display artistic objects.
      Keiji Ashizawa designed the interior of the showroom”There are so many places in which to show something,” Ashizawa said of Karimoku Commons Kyoto.
      “In a traditional Japanese house, there are many spaces like this, showing paintings, ceramics or flowers, which I think is one of the beauties of the culture of the Japanese house. In many ways, we tried to make such a space.”
      The top floor displays a variety of furniture piecesKarimoku, which is Japan’s largest wooden furniture brand, started out making traditional Japanese furniture.
      It now also works with a number of designers on the more contemporary sub-brands Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory, which are the four brands that will be sold in the Karimoku Commons Kyoto showroom.
      The Kyoto space is Karimoku’s second showroom after TokyoAshikawa hopes the space will help to promote a modern design aesthetic.
      “Karimoku is trying to promote modern furniture in modern life,” he said. “I need to explain about the Japanese living space situation – for example, in 1960, sixty years ago, we didn’t have much furniture in the living space.”
      “And then the modern living space came to Japan and people started buying their tables, chairs and even the sofa; it’s quite new, so people don’t necessarily understand how to use a sofa,” he added.
      “Japanese living spaces can be too messy, so it’s quite nice to show them like this.”
      Previous projects by Ashizawa include a curve-shaped tofu restaurant and a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe. Karimoku recently collaborated with Foster on a collection of furniture used in the architect’s Foster Retreat in Martha’s Vineyard.
      The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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