Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM
talking shop
Habitat launches at Westfield London Habitat has just opened the first of two huge stand-alone flagship stores planned for this Autumn
• A second Habitat store is set to open in Brighton city centre in November, as part of the Hanningtons Estate redevelopment of the Brighton Lanes shopping area. Ranged over two floors, the 6,500sq ft store will showcase around 3,000 Habitat products, with room settings and a workshop and events space.
H
abitat opened its first standalone store in a decade, at Westfield London-White City on September 14.
Forming part of shopping centre’s new ‘Home’ hub - which brings together a selection of homeware and furniture retailers - the 4,700sq ft store features more than 1,400 products from the Habitat collection, across furniture, lighting, textiles and home accessories. Habitat managing director Clare Askem says:
“Working with Westfield London to create a major new homeware destination for London has been a hugely exciting project and a fitting location in which to launch our first stand-alone Habitat store for 10 years. “Westfield London will be our first large format
store to offer customers a new immersive Habitat shopping experience within a major shopping mall, and is aimed at those who want the convenience of different fashion, home and entertainment retailers in one easy-to-shop location.” The branch has a minimalist feel, evolved from the 2016 redesign of Habitat’s Tottenham Court Road store. “The space has been built around a white cube framework that allows us to layer a variety of product, colour, shape and pattern on top without making it visually overwhelming for customers,” says senior designer Matthew Long. “The interior design is stripped right back so that there are minimal visual distractions. The aim is to create a calm, inspiring environment where customers can browse at their leisure.” Upon entering, customers are greeted by a 4m high industrial framework entrance with three ‘Instagram square’ window displays, allowing an uninterrupted view inside. Checkerboard flooring in the foyer acts as a backdrop to highlight the bright
colour palette that Habitat is known for using on its products. To the left, an adaptable installation and events cube will house design collaborations and small customer workshops. Further in, a light natural oak flooring has been chosen as a base to showcase larger furniture and upholstery, allowing customers to better visualise them in their own home environment. A 60-piece raft installation hangs from the ceiling to break up the height of the store and give it a more domestic, inviting feel. “We want customers to go on an ‘experience’ in
this store,” comments visual merchandising manager Amy Rich. “Both architecture and visual merchandising have been devised to draw the eye in from the main shopping mall walkways: starting with a wall of bold colour and pattern, being led through by the undulating raft design at different ceiling levels, and emerging at a dramatic, full height lighting installation at the back of the store. “We’ve purposely created a modern marketplace
feel with abundant, informal stacks of tactile products placed throughout this journey, to encourage customers to touch and feel designs, as well as naturally flow through the space.”
• London Westfield joins two other stand-alone Habitat stores in the capital - on Tottenham Court Road (25,000sq ft) and Finchley Road (18,000sq ft) - plus a Mini Habitat (2,000sq ft) in Leeds.
• There are also 11 Mini Habitats in Sainsbury’s supermarkets (the grocer has owned the Habitat brand since 2016), as well as a digital store at
habitat.co.uk, which offers over 2,000 Click & Collect locations and home delivery nationwide. Around 65% of Habitat sales originate online.
September/October 2018 •
HousewaresLive.net •
twitter.com/Housewaresnews
*PHOTOS: DUNJA OPALKO
housewareslive.net | 29
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