Woodcut Showroom in Sydney’s Waterloo by Mim Design.

Seeking a bold statement showroom to herald its Sydney arrival, leading timber brand Woodcut commissioned award-winning Melbourne firm Mim Design to apply its expertise to the stunning new space within Sydney’s PYD Building. Woodcut’s new 160sqm showroom was to not only display more than 50 products, but also allow clients the space to touch, feel and experience the timber.

Mim Design’s senior interior designer, Kristiina Morgan, says the team were provided with some direction but also encouraged to think broadly, leaving plenty of scope for creativity and bold statements. “It was great for the client to be open to doing something that was creative and organic,” she said. “We use the product a lot with our own clients so we felt it was important to demonstrate it’s full use and the level of detail that can be achieved from timber and how that is integrated into design.”

The showroom makes the most of the building’s heritage character – high ceilings and soaring steel-framed windows – resulting in an awe-inspiring room filled with custom designs that would attract customers and set an industry benchmark.

The functionality of the space, particularly for customer interaction, was paramount. A number of custom-made fittings and fixtures were designed to display the diversity and scope of the products. Mim Design’s team incorporated large sliding panels and applied the product to bulk heads highlighting varied detailing outcomes.

Curved panels and organic steps that lead to pivoting panels allow customers to move around the product, seeing the variety of colours and applications and how they can be used. Inspired by the concept of “cut logs”, the designers wanted to illustrate the product’s rich and natural origins, allowing staff to proudly use their surroundings as a reference when selling the product.

Functional and aesthetic, the cut log theme is carried through the space via the curved nature of the stairs and oversized log tables that guide people through the showroom, also creating pod-like spaces from which architects and clients can seek privacy or work from.

“We wanted to embrace the scale of the high voids by going with something quite bold. That’s how we came to create such oversized elements. It’s almost like walking through a forest with huge trees either side of you,” explains Morgan.

Built in just six weeks the showroom opened to the public in August. We had a quick chat to the Woodcut design team at Mim Design – Kristiina Morgan, Miriam Fanning, Samantha Barry and Rory Johnson. Read on for further insight into this beautiful project.

+ Your favourite thing about this project?

The restraint of materials and beautiful movement that the curves create within the space.

+ Most challenging aspect?

The heritage site provided opportunities and challenges. We needed to create a user friendly, creative experience within a very large space that had several heritage features that couldn’t be altered. These included the large steel windows surrounding the boundary walls, the exposed services within the ceilings, and the oversized steel columns segmenting the space.

+ What did you learn during the project?

The beauty of timber as a natural product and the exploration of the material within the early stages of our design phases.

+ Would you have done anything differently?

We would have loved the green ceiling system to be a constantly changing installation that was “re-designed” at various times of the year.

+ Any interesting/ funny/ quirky facts you could share with us?

The original concept for the space was for a gorgeous little log cabin/apartment that could accommodate travelling staff and clients. However, this ended up being a little far fetched.

[Images courtesy of Mim Design. Photography by Sean Fennessey.]