Habitat reveals flagship store design

Habitat has unveiled the first phase its new flagship store design in Tottenham Court Road as part of a multi-million pound refurbishment project. The redesigned 17,000 sqft basement includes a new fitted kitchen studio, cookshop, gallery space, expanded furniture and upholstery floor alongside a new lighting department.

The 25,000 sqft store has been Habitat’s main flagship since 1983, when it relocated from its original Tottenham Court Road address that opened in 1966. The refurbished ground floor is slated to open in April 2016.

Developed in-house by creative director, Polly Dickens, creative manager, Graham Copeland and designer Matthew Long, the new store design showcases a new retail environment for the brand that has evolved from its successful Mini Habitat concept store in Chichester which opened earlier this year.

The two-storey renovation features a new layout and design scheme that strips the building back to its original architectural framework and will include a new main entrance, redesigned central staircase, bespoke fixturing and a monochrome scheme with black wood floors. The design also incorporates new dedicated departments including a cookshop, fitted kitchens design studio as well as new gallery space and expansive textiles wall. Video walls will also feature in the design with content developed to showcase online campaigns from habitat.co.uk and the brand's #HabitatVoyeur project. Interaction screens in-store will also allow customers to browse the full Habitat collection online.

“Tottenham Court Road is our largest store project to date and marks a key milestone for Habitat on today’s British high street,” comments Clare Askem, MD of Habitat. “As we invest and evolve the Habitat brand in a digital space we also recognise the importance of building on our in-store experience by creating immersive, engaging stores that reflect our mission to bring unique design with personality to everyone.

"Habitat is still a brand that customers want to experience and engage with in a physical way and customer reaction to the roll out of 82 Mini Habitat stores over the last three years has been testament to this. The redesign of Tottenham Court Road is based on our learnings from these stores and we’re proud that we can now offer a world-class flagship in our home capital to showcase the best of Habitat design."

Source : Paul Farley – Furniture News
www.furniturenews.net/news/articles/2015/10/2135714455-habitat-unveils-first-phase-tcr-flagship-relaunch