Have you had a chance to explore our new showroom space at 617-643 Spencer St, West Melbourne? If not, we're excited to share that our Melbourne showroom is now open to you virtually, offering a seamless and immersive online tour.
The virtual tour features 360-degree views of both levels of our 2,500m2 showroom, so you can get a close-up look at our entire product range.
Contact us to learn more about our furniture offering and how we can help you create a productive and comfortable workspace.
Whilst our Sydney HQ and Melbourne showroom both remain open and are staffed with a skeleton team ready to help, we understand that, given the current situation, many of us are working from home and are trying our best to minimise the number of outings we undertake each day to help slow the spread.
If you are looking for office furniture and would like to see our complete offering from the comfort of your current work space, our showroom virtual tours are here to help.
Combining the advantages of both open and closed work spaces, Activity Based Working (ABW) has been the main solution to the distraction and noise brought by open office layouts and the privacy missing from the time of the cubicle.
From open office solutions to breakout areas, quiet rooms or informal meeting spaces, our product range and offices have been thoughtfully designed to reflect today's work environment.
This hasn't gone unnoticed by Indesignlive on their last visit. Check out what they think about it here.
With our new 2017 range being released soon, we are bringing you more ABW solutions and we can't wait to show you. Watch this space!
Complimented for their adaptability and innovation, our Conti table and Balance stools are featuring in UBIQ's Conference Room Guide.
Specialising in wireless presentation systems, UBIQ have recently published a comprehensive guide on their blog on how to design the perfect conference room. From picking your wall colour to your conference table, chairs, decor or even the name of your conference room, UBIQ have gathered all the tips to ensure your conference room is set to impress and increase productivity.
See what they have to say about us in their "Conference room design" guide here.
And for more information on any of our products, you can drop us a line here or visit our Mascot showroom.
Australia's leading design website Indesignlive interviewed Carly Krost, interior architect at CKD studio, on the design of our new showroom. Carly designed the showroom and offices and we couldn't be happier with the result.
You can read the full interview below.
Krost is excited to open the doors of its brand new, industrially inspired showroom in Sydney’s Mascot. The sprawling warehouse has been thoughtfully divided into a number of interactive, immersive spaces – and includes an intriguing entryway, design studio for customization, and auditorium space for small gatherings – bringing the full spectrum of Krost’s products to life.
Here, we chat to interior architect Carly Krost, from CKD Studio, about how she envisaged a new home, and a new era for Krost.
What was your initial approach when you began to work on Krost’s new showroom?
INTERIOR ARCHITECT, CARLY KROST: Well I switched it up a bit and asked if I could move in to the Krost offices during the concept design phase to work within their existing showroom. The idea was to dwell within the space and have first hand briefing with the Krost team and product. The directness of the approach allowed greater understanding of the user experience. It was a great way to see the current strengths of their operation and potential shortfalls that could be designed out. This was my very first step – before assessing the new site’s constraints I wanted to get a greater understanding of the organisation.
What were some of the things you discovered, and wanted to change or ‘design out’?
CARLY KROST: Based on the previous showroom’s original structure there was a different design language between the ground floor and mezzanine level. I wanted to ensure the new Krost showroom spaces integrated together, so that it all felt really fluid when you moved through the space. The architecture of the previous showroom just didn’t allow that to happen. Through working in the existing space I could see how I wanted to change the flow between the entrance, the interaction between customer and staff, and the assemblage of product.
What was the brief for Krost’s new showroom?
CARLY KROST: As a designer, I’m really fascinated by brief, and how good brief can create a good outcome.
Krost have an extensive product range, so one of the first parts of the brief to respond to was the display of all products. Nearly everything. This is very different to other suppliers, who might only show a small portion of their product line. I think some customers find it difficult when they visit a showroom and can’t view all products, so this was an important aspect to them.
Aside from showcasing the full breadth of product, a response to the new site constraints and the efficiency of the layout was paramount. Also vital was the user experience. They wanted to design a spatial environment where people could really understand the product, visualise it, be with it, and then sit down somewhere and have a conversation about it, customise it, or view other materiality options.
One of the key features of the showroom is the integration of staff spaces, or back of house, with the actual display areas. They’re intertwined throughout the whole space. What was the reasoning behind this?
CARLY KROST: A key objective was to create an environment which allowed staff to use and be within the Krost product; so you could actually utilise the space – the quiet rooms, the break out areas, the boardroom – and show how the product works. As the Krost team know the product really intimately their activity in the showroom was a great way to showcase the product, how it functions and what it can do. The product becomes more dynamic and less static this way.
One of the other intriguing elements of the showroom is its scale, but then how you’ve drawn it together in various spaces. How did you achieve this?
CARLY KROST: I wanted the new space to work a little differently to their existing floor plan, so my aim was to mix the typology of the furniture configurations to create smaller, more intimate environments which were still apart of this great, large scale showroom.
It was great to have such a wide range of really functional and modern looking furniture to work with. We were able to create some specialist spaces such as the design studio where clients can meet, have a coffee and customise their furniture selections, or the mezzanine auditorium for intimate meetings and talks as well as some more playful spaces such as the staff family style kitchen and ping pong area for breakout.
Where did you draw your inspiration for the showroom?
CARLY KROST: I took inspiration from the site’s evolution as a storage warehouse. As it has moved from a large scale storage facility to a smaller storage and office design facility, precedents from other corporate interior design spheres and the site locality as an industrial area allowed me to explore the materiality of this genre and showcase it in a way which is still very aligned with the Krost aesthetic, I think this comes across when you are in the space and I’ve definitely responded to that character.
What were some of the design challenges in the space?
CARLY KROST: With all interiors, you have to be aware of the little details. It was a huge space with a lot of little areas so keeping on track of the finer points was an important piece to the puzzle. Creating the custom floating steel staircase, was a great learning curve but was an awesome achievement as it allowed the flow through between the staff offices and the showroom to be maintained. The original obstacle of the long entry way soon became a fun exploration with the Krost photo archives where we were able to create a dynamic display with all their historical photos.
Coming through the space now that it’s completed has definitely been fulfilling as all the little corners have allowed me to see varying perspectives throughout the interior – I always notice something different each time I visit and that’s what makes it really worthwhile.
To see our new space, visit us at 33 Ricketty Street, Mascot.
We are excited to announce that we have moved our showroom and offices to a new location.
You can now find us at:
Our warehouse has been converted into a world class showroom. Conserving the industrial features of the original space, it spreads over 2,400 square metres and multiple levels.
With our entire office furniture collection thoughtfully laid out in actual office settings, and a new interactive design studio, we are ready to give you a complete and inspiring experience when creating your new office space together.
We are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. Come visit us, our professional team will be delighted to give you a tour and help you out with your office furniture needs!
