Selfridges goes techno with Arad

Ron Arad has designed the Technology Hall for London department store Selfridges. The department opens on 15 November.

He was approached on the strength of his winning work for the Perrier-Jouët Selfridges Design Prize, which he won with Jasper Morrison (DW 9 March). The designers created installations for display in Selfridges’ windows.

Arad has also created the store’s Christmas windows, which will be unveiled tomorrow (Thursday).

The 2000m2 Technology Hall, situated on Selfridges’ lowerground floor, will showcase products from brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Sony, Technics and Bose, from stereos to digital cameras and in-car multimedia systems.

Arad was briefed to create a space big enough to allow the products to be viewed in an open rather than cramped environment, says Selfridges marketing director James Bidwell. It aims to recreate the feel of a ‘photography or recording studio’, he adds.

The hall will incorporate a specialist DJ division, called West End DJ, featuring equipment including turntables and speakers, as well as concessions such as HMV and Carphone Warehouse.

The Christmas windows combine products lit by hundreds of fibre optics lights. ‘[They] use light, which is still very much a traditional element of Christmas, in a provocative way,’ says Bidwell.

Meanwhile, Selfridges is opening a temporary vodka bar on its fourth floor, designed in-house at Selfridges.

It will serve only Polstar, an Icelandic vodka brand, and opens on 8 November until Christmas.