Marz Designs
Marz Designs
Words & Images by Aaron Chapman
Published in The Local Project, Issue 14 here
Part showroom, part atelier, the newly renovated Marz Designs headquarters operates on Bundjalung land in Byron Bay’s thriving industrial estate. Founder and designer Coco Reynolds chose this communal location, a growing epicentre of contemporary practices, to establish a physical shopfront.
Marz Designs customers can now physically engage with its contemporary range of lights and a selection of furniture and homewares. As many of the studio’s products have a unique materiality and reflect a variety of handmade processes, the showroom allows an immersive in-situ experience where clients can obtain a sense of scale and feel the weight and texture of the timber, ceramic and stone lighting components.
Marz Designs follows a made-to-order approach, and the showroom’s spatial journey aims to celebrate craftsmanship – from initial design to collaborations and the assembly of the locally made products that form each of its collections. Kin Design and whitewood, the interior designers on the project, utilised the large mezzanine in the space to blur the lines between product and process. As guests meander through the showroom, a glazed concave corner, akin to a shopfront, punctuates the experience and invites viewing of the internal work surface where lights are designed and assembled.
There are several showroom moments that are thoughtful cues to the considered craftsmanship on display within its walls. Fluted skirting and an abundance of American walnut timber not only celebrate the many trades and talents involved in making Marz Designs’ new atelier a remarkable mixed-use space but are also integral elements of an engaging environment for the growing range of contemporary designs thoughtfully produced through collaborative processes.