Showcasing dream homes
UDesign’s stunning new showroom is a tool they use to help people create their dream home.
Article by Vivion O’Kelly
UDesign’s new showroom is a combination of showroom, interactive interior design space and informal meeting place for clients and design professionals, where architects, designers and projects managers are on hand to offer their knowledge and creativity as needed and asked for. Their task goes way beyond the showing of products and materials.
The raison d'être of this showroom is firmly on good design and how best to make it work for the client. But what appears to be wonderful in a showroom might not be so wonderful at home, and this is where specialist knowledge comes in.
Buying a beautiful sofa is easy but buying one that really works in the space one has available is not so easy. It may be too big or too small. It may be upholstered in a material you love, but your dog may love it too. Perhaps a more user-friendly material, which can be taken off and washed occasionally, would suit you better, and UDesign will advise you on that.
This is the age-old compromise between function and aesthetics, and it is often difficult for a client to be conscious of all the practicalities all the time. In the new showroom, every aspect of a purchase decision is thought about very carefully by all concerned, the task made somewhat easier by the overall layout of the products on show: a dozen or so very different zones designed to demonstrate different ideas and styles. Each zone showcases how furniture placement, materials and colours can blend to create a specific mood or style.
UDesign first analyse the space people have in their homes to create what they call a special plan, which is something akin to a personal shopper service. “Think of it as you would when being fitted for a Saville Row suit. Fitted is the key word, because you are not buying it off the rack. What you think you want and what looks good on you are not necessarily the same thing. It’s similar with a house” says Jason Harris, Creative Director and CEO of UDesign.
Design can make the complicated look simple, and the new showroom is a space where UDesign can show people what is likely to work in real terms rather than on a computer screen. Not just to fill a space, but to suit that space. This is not just about material and style, it’s about size and scale and positioning – all fundamental to the creation of beautiful spaces.
Lighting is an area that also requires professional skills to get right, because most of us do not spend hours of our time thinking about it and analysing all the options available. UDesign do. They consider all aspects of illumination - direct lighting, ambient lighting, low lights, bright lights, and technical advances that the client did not even know existed.
“What lighting you use and how you use it is subject to everything else in the room, quite apart from its architecture and overall design,” says Jason.
The client may not know what they want, and here the showroom itself comes into its own. All these zones show different designs, all beautiful and all different, ranging from conservative to eclectic to moody to minimalist. Each zone has been designed to create an entity that says something, to help people identify how they really feel about a room that they can relate to and identify with, according to their personal taste.
“We get a feel for what people really like from the showroom, and what they don’t like, and with that knowledge we can help them to create a style that’s unique to them and their lifestyle,” says Jason.
The UDesign showroom is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am till 6 pm. Pol. Ind. San Pedro Alcántara, Calle Luxemburgo Esq. Calle Turquía, Local 4, 29670 San Pedro Alcántara, Málaga. Tel: (+34) 952 794 117 Email: info@udesign.es Website: udesign.es