A New Design Destination – The Living Edge Melbourne Showroom by Bates Smart
Set within a pared-back glass enclosure, Living Edge’s newly launched Melbourne showroom is the ideal backdrop for its curated collection of international furniture and lighting. Bates Smart brings a refined approach to the base materiality and its application, crafting flexible and welcoming internal zones from a minimal palette.
Neatly tucked into the popular compression of commercial, trade and furniture showrooms in Richmond, Living Edge’s new Church Street address is set well and truly within the design action. Although already familiar in the Richmond area, the new showroom sees a considerable expansion of real estate, with the added capacity to showcase an extended collection of the design icons Living Edge represents. Designed by Bates Smart, the interior refurbishment sees a modernist approach fused with a deliberately pared-back minimal palette. The resulting series of transformable zones offers the ideal backdrop for a range of furniture and lighting.
Designed by Bates Smart, the interior refurbishment sees a modernist approach fused with a deliberately pared-back minimal palette. The resulting series of transformable zones offers the ideal backdrop for a range of furniture and lighting.
The original 1980s architecture the showroom is set within offers a 360-degree visual engagement between the interior and the exterior, creating uninterrupted sightlines. The glazed box sits on street level, set back from its generous and inviting front promenade landscape. The upper floor offers a level of privacy and intimacy, differentiating itself from the openness and transparency of the lower level and providing more intimate moments to house different furniture offerings and operational elements of the showroom. The approachability that defines a distinctively Melbourne aesthetic has carefully been intertwined throughout the immersive design.
Reflecting the Living Edge’s ethos of timeless, authentic and sustainable design, Bates Smart stripped the original building back to its original bones, allowing a considered, refined and modern approach to be applied. In recognition of the calibre of the brands the space houses, the emphasis was on creating a backdrop against which all the products would be celebrated. With a restrained base, exposed beams and columns sit unobtrusively, while speaking to the building’s inherent structure. Adding further layers and texture, the unsealed brick and timber bring in a natural element, which is accentuated by a subtle nod to the building’s industrial qualities continued through select fixtures and hardware.
Envisioned as a welcoming and unassuming destination for an eclectic audience, the deliberate foundations of natural and honest materiality speak to both refinement and relatability. Crafted through the discerning lens of the team at Bates Smart, the new Melbourne showroom is a considered, immersive and timeless space dedicated to honouring and celebrating Living Edge’s collection of international furniture and lighting.
