DE S IGN CENTRE


THE BIG FLEX Adaptability is an increasingly prized quality that we


look for in our homes. Emily Brooks explores how to make every space cleverer and more hardworking


in that time: children grow up and adults grow old; we might work from home more often, discover a hobby that needs extra space or get the bug for entertaining. What this adds up to is that both short- and long-term flexibility are increasingly prized as a quality – and with good design, rooms can switch functions with more ease. Within the Design Centre’s showrooms there are


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hundreds of examples of hard-working products that can support this move towards greater flexibility. Porada’s award-winning ‘Savio’ cabinet opens up to reveal a beautiful maple interior with desk, illuminated shelves and storage pockets, ideal for the homeworker who wants


to close everything off at the end of


the day, while Forbes & Lomax and newly opened showroom Hamilton sell smart-home-compatible light switches that can turn your kitchen-diner from a well- illuminated cooking zone to seductive dinner party mode with one touch. Looking for flexible furniture that changes as your life does? Invest in a modular sofa that you can add to, or change configuration to alter a room layout: Flexform recently reworked its bestselling ‘Groundpiece’ to add a solid armrest that doubles up as shelving, recognising that “changes in lifestyle spark new behaviours and needs…on today’s sofas, people rest, watch TV, read, and often work and even have dinner.” Thanks to advances in battery technology, portable


lighting deserves a special mention for how it has freed up design schemes. You may know Collier Webb’s game-changing rechargeable lights from hospitality projects such as Bryan O’Sullivan Studio’s Berkeley Bar in London, and more recently Roman and Williams’ Red Pearl restaurant in Manhattan’s Seaport district,


he average homeowner with a mortgage stays in their home for a decade; without a mortgage, it’s 23 years – and those figures are rising. Needless to say, a lot can happen


but it has found favour with residential designers too. “Where you might need to put a lamp on every table in a restaurant, not having to plan for how you’re going to power those is huge. Before, you needed a floor box under every table,” says Collier Webb’s design director David Arratoon. “For homes, designers tell me that they love portable lighting because before, they were doing things like cutting holes in rugs [for the cable].” Without having to think so much about cable management, layouts are that bit freer to adapt and change in the future. A further use for portable lighting is that it can be


taken outside, just for those moments when you want to enjoy an evening in the garden, and then take it back in. At a time where outdoor space has evolved to be more like an additional room,


this is a lovely extra detail


that can complete the look. The boundaries are really starting to blur between inside and out, so much so that furniture companies are being less prescriptive about where their work ‘belongs’. Take Italian brand Exteta (available in the Tollgard showroom), which makes high-performance furniture that it says “no longer defines environments by the limits between indoors and outdoors but rather considers them hybrid spaces to be brought to life with a creative eye.” Whether a stone coffee table or an upholstered sofa, you’d be hard pushed to describe its portfolio as ‘garden furniture’ such is its level of sophistication, a fact that has made Exteta a popular brand for superyacht designers and those who create homes in warmer climes. French brand Moisonnier (available at August+Co) takes a similar approach with its charming and colourful lacquered furniture, its trellis design working equally well on the terrace as in a living space. When she was designing a home in Coconut Grove


in Miami, designer Stephanie Barba Mendoza went all-out to create an external area that looked and felt more like a comfortable living room. “You can treat an


RIGHT: Tropical climes – like this Miami home by Stephanie Barba Mendoza – lend themselves to outdoor ‘living rooms’, but good performance products mean a year-round decorative outdoor space is possible anywhere. Barba Mendoza has used fabrics from Perennials, Savel (available from Alexander Lamont + Miles) and Link Outdoor (available from Colony by Casa Luiza)


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