Equal display for products, a ‘challenge’—architect

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 22

Equal display for products, a ‘challenge’—architect

Architect Bill Skews’ desire when he designed the interior of the Building Centre was to develop a display which showed off all the products in an equal manner. “This had never been done before so it was a

great challenge,” he said. “The major priority was resolving how to move the people through the building. “The advertising would get the people to the centre, it was my job to make sure all the people moved through the build-

ing so they could see everything easily,” he said. The result of Bill Skews’ design is a display at every turn. After the customers come into the building and go past reception there is a carpeted walkway which meanders through the complex. “There is an absence of straight lines and the stands have low sides which takes away any corridor effect which often marks this type of display,” he said. When standing in the entrance near the reception it is actually possible to see the length of the building while only catching glimpses of each display. “Another technique was to vary the height of the ceiling throughout which gave plenty of variety.” Lighting has been reduced throughout the centre so exhibitors can get the full impact from spotlights. All these various ideas combine to give the

whole centre constant movement in terms of width and special effect “It gives the place excitement” The centre has tried to use exhibitors’ products wherever possible and incorporated them into the building. The colour scheme for the interior was difficult to select “What was needed was a neutral base that all the other colours reacted off. It has to be attractive yet not dominate. “We had 200 potential exhibitors each with 10 products with 10 different colours and we needed a colour against which any other colour could be matched without looking glaringly bad. This is why we picked the shade of pink we have,” he said. The carpet had to be extremely durable so as not to show the effects of the heavy traffic or distract from the displays. “I believe we have created the best building centre in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. '