Image Credit : Steve Scalone
https://www.stevescalone.com/
Project Overview
Concept has brought to life Krost's desire to revolutionize the commercial furniture industry. With its new multilevel showroom located in West Melbourne, Krost now offers an expansive, immersive and industrially inspired space showcasing its full breadth of commercial and office products.
The showroom brings a truly intuitive user experience with a focus on their interaction with the environment and their way of working. Through thoughtful interior design and materials inspired by the pre-existing building's history, as well as strategically placed lighting, Krost's new showroom fosters a personalized, dynamic experience that helps customers visualize and feel the products in a truly immersive way.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Lisa Elliott, Interior Designer (Lisa Elliott Interior Design)
Shaun Geleit, Project Manager (Concept)
Project Brief
Securing an iconic building close to the heart of Melbourne, the Krost team were looking to create the ultimate showroom for their commercial furniture offering. A space that not only showcased their extensive range, but also created an inviting opportunity for on-site collaboration amongst clients, builders, architects, and designers to meet and explore their commercial workspace vision.
Housed over an expansive 2,554m2 of space, the showroom is Melbourne’s largest for commercial furniture, making for an unparalleled one-stop user experience.
Project Innovation/Need
The building, originally part of the iconic White Crow tomato sauce factory, is a double-level ‘L’ shape within which Krost has crafted three distinct halls- The Atrium, The Den and The Greenhouse.
Ascending from Spencer Street, The Atrium is a space that celebrates the abundant natural light streaming through the roof atrium. This area seamlessly connects the staff offices at the rear to the new upper-level customer materials library. A central void was created to establish a connection between the upper and lower levels, stimulating curiosity and encouraging further exploration. As visitors traverse this new central void with a staircase of black steel and Tasmanian Oak, they enter the lower level known as The Den.
Characterized by an atmospheric moody ambiance, The Den showcases a variety of furniture displays and includes the lower ground entry reception. Here, a spacious second materials library display and customer meeting point are accompanied by a new lift and heritage display.
The three halls were ingeniously designed to seamlessly transition from staging areas to product displays, showcasing the furniture collection, integrating office and staff areas, and enabling customers to envision their own workspace design goals.
The carefully staged scenes, featuring workstations, offices, boardrooms, conversation areas, and more, strike a delicate balance between definition and integration within the overall showroom layout. The thoughtful division of space using small platforms, draperies, screens, and rugs helps to distinguish different scenes without compromising the overall sense of spaciousness and maintaining a smooth customer journey throughout.
Design Challenge
Having a rich history themselves, Krost was determined to retain as much of the building’s structure as possible to ensure it remained part of Melbourne’s cityscape for years to come.
This nearly 100-year-old neglected site required significant rectification works, including tackling rising damp and large water-damaged concrete columns that had caused the building to start moving. Beyond that, the construction team were sifting through layers of messy additions to the original structure from the building's extensive history, including redundant mechanical systems, swathes of plasterboard and old venetian blinds, to expose the original brickwork and slab floors.
The steel reinforcements, concrete footing, and all air conditioning and lighting were replaced. A new stairlift at entry, a new lift car, and disabled and ambulant toilets were all installed to bring the old warehouse up to S1428 Accessibility standards.
These works ate into the design budget; however, the designers pivoted, embracing the original features and approaching the updates with a light touch to achieve a sophisticated industrial atmosphere. The concrete floors were polished and integrated into the new design, some of the original brickwork is exposed and made a feature. Timber and steel are the primary finishes used throughout. A nod to the origins of the once formidable structure of Melbourne’s local manufacturing history.
This stunning showroom meets the market's needs now and well into the future; a truly immersive space for the Design community and their clients to experience and visualise their workspace potential.
Sustainability
With a strong commitment to sustainability at its core, Krost ensures every aspect of the business, from manufacturing to transportation, embraces eco-conscious practices. Echoing this commitment, Concept embraced a low-impact approach to prioritize sustainability.
Existing elements were maximized and enhanced wherever possible. The original concrete slab was skillfully polished, while the existing timber floor was preserved and stained instead of installing new flooring. Vaulted ceilings were retained whenever feasible, and plasterboard ceilings were sparingly used only in specific areas such as the meeting/office space on the upper ground floor and above the reception & sample library on the lower ground floor.
Emphasizing local manufacturing and suppliers was crucial, aligning with Krost's sustainability principles and mitigating the ongoing stock challenges caused by Covid. Concept's carpenters, along with Krost's joinery team and installers, meticulously crafted feature panels and podiums on-site using locally sourced materials, showcasing their diverse range of furniture products.
The end result is a remarkable achievement, reviving the building's timeless grandeur and providing a new benchmark for commercial furniture showrooms in Australia. A fitting home for Krost, its furniture, and its business community in Melbourne.
Interior Design - Commercial
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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