If Melbourne’s design industry were a country town, Richmond’s Church street would definitely be ‘the main drag’.

Studded with showrooms along it’s southern leg, Richmond has always been a design promenade during Melbourne’s Saturday Indesigns, and this year’s Melbourne Indesign was no exception.

At the North end, Artedomus christened their newly renovated showroom space with superb new offerings from Italian bathware brand Agape. Rounding out the Italian theme was Pizza truck, vintage Fiats scattered about the space, and presentations from the brand’s own representative, Niccolo Bignardi.

Artedomus

Peppers Designs’ showroom played host to Cosentino and V-Zug. The incredible new material, Dekton, was the highlight for the Spanish brand, who highlighted its resilience and versatility by inviting visitors to graffiti a slab! Meanwhile things got steamy with the Swiss company as they put the new Combi Steam oven to work on the canapés.

Cosentino

Coco Republic welcomed the brand new range by Jonathan Adler to their sumptuous showroom, and offered visitors the generous hospitality the company is renowned for. Just up the road, the first stand-alone for Timothy Oulton fused British tradition with the comfort and largesse, hosting a London Tea Parlour and the launch of Darren Palmer’s new book, ‘Easy Luxury’.

Coco Republic

In the southern cluster of showrooms, Designer Rugs presented new collaborations with Greg Natale, Hare + Klein, Megan Hess and bernabeifreeman, as well as hosting the Indesign in Discussion talk on Friday afternoon.

Designer Rugs

Tongue n Groove dressed their showroom up to celebrate the launch of their new Massivo range. Pairing flooring with furniture, KE-ZU populated the space with new product by Jaime Hayón and Oscar Tusquets Blanca for Parachilna, Expormim and BD Barcelona.

Tongue n Grrove/KE-ZU

Australian furniture design and manufacture brand Arthur G Furniture teamed up with boutique wallpaper and textile distributors The Selvedge Group to launch new product by BUTE textiles, inviting James Sprint, owner of the Scottish brand, to share his knowledge of how wool can contribute to interiors.

Arthur G/The Selvedge Group

CDK Stone unveiled their new (literally hours old) showroom for Melbourne Indesign, putting the space straight to work for the launch of their Neolith product – one of the largest sintered compact stone surface slabs.

CDK Stone

PAD Furniture were also all new at MID 2014, with fresh digs and a slew of brands straight from Europe including Bonaldo, Tonin Casa, Unpiu and Rausch.

PAD Furniture

Industry heavyweights Space Furniture and Poliform made for a very strong finish at the southern end of Church Street, with Space blurring the lines between furniture retailer and bunker rave with its ‘Tanqueray Gin Palace’ installation and Poliform paralleling its superlative Italian kitchen offerings with gastronomic delights.

Space Furniture

Polifrom

At the eastern edge of the precinct, Zuster’s showroom identified itself as a magnetic standalone destination, celebrating the company’s 20th anniversary with the launch of the Tribute collection, which draws on the best of their design history, and the ‘Duyfken’ collection, inspired by the first Dutch ship to sight Australia.

Zuster

West of Church Street, a cluster of brands animated Richmond’s narrow back streets with electric green. Philip Stokes Glass Studio gave visitors impressive live demonstrations of how their blown-glass lights are created, and around the corner Articolo Lighting expanded on this theme by presenting eight new collections of mixed materiality.

Phillip Stokes Glass Studio

Articolo Lighting

On the commercial furniture front, Eastern Commercial Furniture showcased their impressively ample and varied product range, while Chairbiz presented a host of new table systems, booths, hybrid and technological products fresh from the Milan Design Fair. Uniting their finishes with Chairbiz’s furnishings, Shaw Contract Group displayed some of their most popular carpet tiles – Beyond the Fold, Hexagon and Dye Lab.

Eastern Commercial Furniture

Chairbiz/The Shaw Group

Last but certainly not least, Blu Dot presented an impressively established looking pop-up location at the Hecker Guthrie studio, replete with the latest products from the American brand and good old-fashioned hospitality.

Blu Dot

Rich and varied, Richmond was once again a hugely rewarding precinct throughout Melbourne Indsign. New showrooms, new product and energised collaborations spoke to the hard work exhibitors had put in to the event, and the enthusiastic celebrations on Saturday evening suggest that it culminated with equally hard play.

Photography by: Fiona Susanto Photography
fionasusanto.com

Indesign: The Event

For more coverage of Melbourne Indesign 2014 visit: indesignlive.com/category/articles/in-review/mid-2014