This October, Maharam opens two showrooms for Edelman, Knoll Textiles, and Maharam in Melbourne and Sydney. After twenty years of business in Australia, the spaces reflect Maharam’s newly independent presence in the region. Designed in close dialogue with New York-based architect Neil Logan, who specializes in reimagining functional spaces with modern understatement, the showrooms are the latest in an ongoing collaboration spanning over twenty-five years.
In keeping with Maharam interiors around the world, the new locations feature gallery-like settings for optimal viewing of an extensive product library. Custom displays and furnishings fabricated by Mark Tuckey, an Australian timber furniture maker renowned for its craftsmanship, enlist solid fir and marine plywood as warm, neutral counterpoints to textiles and leather. At Melbourne’s 730 square-foot (68 square-meter) showroom, a wooden cabinet system spanning the north wall serves as a sample library, while partitioned tabletops in both locations display products in a gridded field of color, pattern, and texture. The Sydney showroom, which occupies 3,960 square feet (368 square-meters), includes a window wall lined with an expansive lattice of solid fir, amplifying the presence of a grid. A handrail wrapped in Maharam leather Source—an unembellished surface that patinas over time—provides a tactile invitation upon entry.
The Melbourne showroom is situated within Orica House (originally the ICI House), an International Style building included on the Australian National Heritage list. Designed by the architecture firm then named Bates, Smart & McCutcheon, the open-plan building led to shifts in Melbourne’s height limitation laws, becoming the country’s tallest freestanding office building upon its completion in 1958. The showroom’s gridded features and understated materiality complement that of the modernist building, with its concrete, steel, and glass construction.