IF Architecture’s strategy for the design of Jardan’s Perth showroom is consistent with it approach to their retail locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Namely, to create a relaxed and welcoming environment, which showcases Jardan’s beautiful furniture, lighting and homewares in natural-feeling domestic settings. Like these other showrooms, Jardan’s new Perth home draws on the spirit of the location – specifically, an old limestone building on the Stirling Highway near the turn-off to Cottesloe Beach – to give fresh expression to the Jardan brand.
The colours and textures here, on floors and on walls, tell a story about the Western Australian landscape. The interior places Jardan squarely in that landscape. Every year, the wildflower season draws people out of Perth and into the desert. It begins in June in the north of the state and flows down to the south over the following months, with carpets of vivid colour springing up from the red sand. Our design celebrates this wonderful natural phenomenon with a pattern of colourful natural stone laid into the terrazzo floor, which leads customers along a meandering pathway through the showroom. The pathway of stone “flowers” is flanked by curved walls clad in timber veneer, the combination of organic shapes and textures evoking feelings of being among nature.
In the section of the showroom that occupies the original building, the rough earthiness of the bare limestone walls creates a compelling sense of contrast against the polished floor and refined textures of Jardan’s products. Tucked into one corner, a display area for chairs and stools rises up like a stylised rocky outcrop in the interior landscape.
By creating these moments within the larger space – the rocky outcrop; the furniture arranged to form discreet “rooms”; the irregular, organic form of the sales counter – and linking them with the stone pathway, we created an interior that takes customers on a journey. It entices them deeper into the showroom, encourages them to explore every corner, and inspect every product.
Positioning the entrance to the showroom at the rear of the building, away from the busy highway, enabled us to establish a calmer, quieter arrival sequence for customers. Instead of stepping in off the street, or straight from the carpark, they pass through a beautifully landscaped open-air space featuring Jardan’s outdoor furniture. And then into a living room.
The experience of visiting Jardan Perth is less like entering a furniture store and more like being welcomed into a home.