Chicago Design Center

Spacestor Chicago Design Center
An experiential and destination space for architects, designers and workplace strategists looking to discover ways to create enriching and beautifully designed spaces that attract talent
Emplacement
The Mart, Chicago
créé par
Spacestor

 

At the heart of Chicago's design scene stands the iconic Merchandise Mart. When this landmark opened in 1930 it was the largest building in the world with 4 million square feet of floor space. Under a single roof are a collection of the most significant architectural and design vendors in Chicago, including Spacestor. In 2023 Spacestor reinvigorated its space with the latest cutting-edge products and newest concepts, affording its employees, stakeholders, and clients the ability to discover The New Landscape for Work and enter a portal into the best of the best globally.

Right from the entrance, the space draws the visitor in through rich, forest-green arches to an unprecedented world beyond. A world where innovation and play are possible, where products and landscapes can be conceived, created, and customized to allow the designer to achieve the space of their dreams. This New Landscape for Work represents a wider shift in the industry, from a traditional frame of mind to one of fluid flexibility, from taking modular furniture as it is to instilling it within a landscape where elements are joined up, flow, and are a cohesive and close representation of your brand.

In the heart of Spacestor Design Centre is a collaborative space created with their modular space-defining system, Aeonica. Aeonica is a set of 5 classic geometric building blocks, each piece being engineered for inter-compatibility, to allow the creation of a vast choice of landscapers and space-makers – from private Cloisters to spacious Pantheons in almost unlimited combinations. Designed with Gensler as product consultants, the curved, architecturally inspired shapes are familiar to designers, although Aeonica’s concept within the workplace setting is entirely new and unrivaled. Aeonica won the Interior Design’s Best of Year Award and was a finalist in the Mixology awards in 2023.

Verandas, in deep burgundy, provide a meeting space that can be moved and reconfigured as your space needs change. This is evident in Spacestor 2023 refresh where they took the existing Verandas modules in the space and reconfigured them to create a wholly different aesthetic and function. Demonstrating its use as a multi-functional piece of furniture, every side and space of the Verandas has its own purpose. Using the same kit of parts, Spacestor has created a meeting room with built-in lighting, ventilation, and AV, as well as an information area, and a quiet touchdown nook, utilizing the negative space created on the exterior.

Towards the back of the space, the true incompatibility of Spacestor products is truly manifest. Traversing the entire width of the Design Center is Palisades II acting as the bond between the manufacturer's range of Pods and Booths. Blending subtle color changes, complimentary accents, and archways, this zoning product has become more than just a way to divide up space. Palisades II holds endless possibilities for designers for real space definition in an impactful and meaningful way.

The Residence Connect Accessible in natural ply offers the Best Ever Video Conference Experience for Everyone and the Residence Max, a space-efficient, individual working pod, both of which offer a dedicated quiet space within a larger buzzing floorplate. In the Gensler research report of 2023, they found that the single most important factor which drew employees back to the office was the need to do focused work. This highlights the importance of a solitary space that provides a sanctuary away from the buzz. The Portals Family are a collection of flexible productive spaces which do just that. Coming in a range of depths and heights, they can be joined up to each other and the rest of the Spacestor range to enable a cohesive and successfully functional workplace.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Spacestor’s philosophy is that a focus on personal experience is essential to attracting and retaining great talent. As Russell Kingston, US Managing Director at Spacestor said; "What we’re creating are spaces that are destinations, they’re experiences, and this new design center is a showcasing of our flexible ancillary furniture solutions as answers to current workplace needs. This is all about creating enriching spaces that people want to come to in an attractive and sustainable way.”