Universal appeal for Skandium shop

Universal Design Studio is creating the interiors for Skandium’s London flagship store, which is due to open in late spring on Marylebone High Street.

The Scandinavian lifestyle retailer’s Wigmore Street store will close prior to the launch, but its Selfridges concession will remain in operation, a company spokeswoman says.

According to Universal Design Studio associate Matt Krusin, the consultancy is expected to ‘manage the entire project’, from design development to architectural work carried out on site.

Design work will be completed before Christmas, with on-site work starting in January 2004.

Krusin says Skandium briefed Universal Design Studio to create ‘unfussy, uncluttered’ interiors that will ‘allow products to speak for themselves’.

Although initial designs are yet to be approved, he says floors are ‘likely to be timber, possibly painted’ with units fashioned from ‘oak soaked in white oil’.

The consultancy is intending to install recessed, directional lighting, as well as a ‘simple, delicate staircase’, which will lead to the basement sales floor.

The store may also feature a ‘front-of-store seating area with Swedish magazines and sweets,’ and possibly exterior seating, Krusin adds.

Universal Design Studio, the interiors offshoot of Barber Osgerby Associates, won the work in October on the basis of its previous relationship with Skandium.

The consultancy designed the company’s concessions at Selfridges stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham