Kvadrat's new Shoreditch showroom

Danish textile company Kvadrat appointed graphic designer Peter Saville and architect David Adjaye to work together on the design of their new Shoreditch showroom which opens this month (March 2009). A 7m high space, it comprises mezzanine offices and a lower-ground retail space. The focal point is this multi-coloured glass staircase linking the space together, offset by an otherwise neutral palette of grey, black and white.

When I first read about the project in Design Week, I was immediately drawn to the simplicity of the design and its firmly graphic approach. Here is an example of spatial design undertaken in part by a graphic designer, which somehow retains the feel of two-dimensional graphic design whilst at the same time fulfilling a spatial design brief. Together, Saville and Adjaye have used colour and geometry in the same way a designer might approach the design of a piece of printed artwork. Indeed on reading the article, Saville says that his back catalogue of graphic design work played a part in forming the concept - in particular, the colour coded alphabet on his Blue Monday single cover.

Interestingly, Saville's take on the role of space as a communication tool in its own right closely follows my own view of the links between branding, communication and spatial design. He has been working with Kvadrat for nearly five years, principally as a communications consultant, and believes his involvement in the current project was a natural progression of that role. He says,

"Everything within the context of how an organisation acts is part of how it communicates. The London showroom is a significant dimension of Kvadrat's communications and, as such, the company was interested in my contributing to the aura of the new showroom."

(LORENZ, Trish, 2009. 'Double Act'. Design Week, 24(10), pp. 19)

Second image from: Rose Etherington, 2009. 'Kvadrat showroom by Peter Saville and David Adjaye'. Dezeen. Available at: http://www.dezeen.com/2009/03/20/kvadrat-showroom-by-peter-saville-and-david-adjaye/ [accessed 20/04/09]