Bureau de Change combines furniture with digital projections for second Made.com showroom
Homeware retailer Made.com has opened a showroom in London's Soho, featuring a shopfront based on a pin-art toy and a series of domestic sets combined with full-scale video projections (+ slideshow).
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
Designed by London studio Bureau de Change, the Made.com showroom is used to present the products available to order via the company's website, with no on-site sales.
The challenge was to develop a space that "adds value" to the digital retail experience, which prompted designers Billy Mavropoulos and Katerina Dionysopoulou to introduce video projection alongside the physical products.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
In this way, customers can pair up different items to understand how they might work together in the home.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_6.jpg)
"For us, the design challenge was how to display in-store, where space is at a premium, the breadth of content you can see on a website," explained Dionysopoulou.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
"The projections provide a true, adaptable representation of the products, at the right scale, in the right place. Without them, the room sets feel unfinished, so for us they were the missing link to achieving a flexibility you can normally only achieve online," she said.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_0.jpg)
Avoiding the Ikea model of recreating whole rooms, many of the products are simply displayed against colourful backdrops.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
Others are set in front of curving white screens. This creates a useable surface for projection, but was also intended by the designers as a reference to the building's history as a bookshop – as the proportions are reminiscent of a book's pages.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_2.jpg)
Another feature of the space is a wall of framed postcards, indicating where customers can help themselves to material swatches. There are also computer tablets on hand for sourcing extra information about pieces on display.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_10.jpg)
For the shopfront, a typical product display seemed less appropriate, so the designers opted instead for an installation that operates like the popular pin-art toy.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_13.jpg)
Some of the brand's most popular pieces of furniture were pressed into 40,000 clear plastic rods that puncture a row of 10 windows, leaving only their impressions behind.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
"This is such a bustling street, with so many stores vying for your attention, we wanted to produce something unexpected – an idea that would set it apart from the traditional format of lots of products in a display," said Mavropoulos.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_4.jpg)
"Instead, we have taken a single idea – of the products pushing through the glazing – and filled each window with it. You still get a sense of the products beyond the frontage, but the views are more intriguing, more oblique," he added.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_3.jpg)
Made.com opened its first showroom in 2012, two years after launching its online retail business, which specialises in affordable design. It's products are batch manufactured once a volume of customers have purchased the same item, cutting out the need for warehouses and helping reduce the cost of its furniture and accessories.
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_12.jpg)
The appointment of Bureau de Change for the second space followed a project by the architect duo to rework the London home of Chloe Macintosh, co-founder and creative director of the company.
"Taking on a central London location is a huge step for us as a brand," said Macintosh. "We see it as an opportunity to meet with a broader range of customers and for them to experience the Made way of thinking."
![Made.com showroom by Bureau de Change](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/02/Made-com-showroom-by-Bureau-de-Change_dezeen_468_11.jpg)
"The space was designed on a tight budget and timeframe but Bureau de Change brought a lot of ingenuity and flair and turned an old rundown bookstore into a crisp, spacious and inviting design for our customers," she added.
Photography is by the architects.