Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen channelled the aesthetic of a library inside the latest showroom of Danish textile company Kvadrat, which has opened in west London.
Kvadrat at Home is the company's inaugural "residential showroom", offering a selection of textiles suited to domestic furnishings like rugs, curtains and cushions.
The retail space is set within the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour and will accommodate collections by the company's home-focused brands, Sahco and Kinnasand, as well as fabrics that Kvardat has made in collaboration with fashion designer Raf Simons.
Antwerp-based Vincent Van Duysen – who is also the creative director of Sahco – was tasked with developing the interiors of the 140-square-metre showroom.
He decided to create a library-like setting where different swatches of fabrics are placed on shelves of the store like books.
"Libraries are the epicentres of my interior and architecture work and their rooms – I'm a collector of books as well," Van Duysen told Dezeen. "So I said why not create a library of fabrics?"
"You come into the showroom, away from the other shops, and you get an immediately residential feeling – you come into a room within a room," he continued.
"It gives a kind of freedom where you can sit down, feel comfortable, convivial and discuss the fabrics within the library."
Floor-to-ceiling shelves made from larch wood have been built into the showroom's walls, all painted a dark shade of grey.
Swathes of sample fabrics are suspended from hangers at the bottom of the shelves, while cushions and decorative vases are displayed in the narrower slots.
Two oak-wood tables offer customers a place to sit and have consultations with staff. Sea-green stools by Molteni&C have been slotted underneath.
Oak has also been used to craft the service counter and the light-hued Dinesen floorboards that run throughout the showroom.
At the entrance of the store is a small display area where the company can create homely set-ups that showcase the company's products. At the time of opening, it featured a wall hanging comprised of mismatch blue-tone fabrics, a side table and two rounded armchairs perched on a black edition of the Kvadrat Semis rug.
"I don't like 'soulless' showrooms where you just have an amount of furniture that's stacked. I wanted to offer a full concept of living," explained Van Duysen.
The interiors of the showroom follow Van Duysen's signature "warm-minimalist" style, which he has applied to previous projects like Antwerp's August hotel and an Aesop store in Hamburg.
"For me, there can be the maximalism of stripping things down – of getting to the core. Michelangelo said simplicity is the highest degree of sophistication, and I think I believe in that," he said.
"We're all living in a fast-tracked digitalised world, where everything has to happen right now. I'm a sensualist, a person that really wants to go to the bones and take away all the excess. I want to give calmness and serenity back to the people, and slow down processes."