Armadillo LA

The Los Angeles showroom is the US flagship retail space for Australian ethical rug brand, Armadillo. Located on a busy LA boulevard, the design encompasses a revised facade, wild new gardens, a generous showroom for a growing collection of new product and a range of storage, office & meeting spaces. The vision for LA came about during a site visit in 2022. The existing space informed the initial concept, in this case, the large barrel vaulted ceiling that is the first thing you notice when you enter the space. This curved element sparked a conversation about building a concept that was perhaps softer and more organic compared to other Armadillo showrooms. After a visit to LACMA and seeing Richard Serra’s iconic ‘band’ sculpture, and some subsequent sketches in the back of an Uber (very LA!), we were soon creating 1:1 shapes with masking tape on the floor. These free-form walls allowed us to break up the showroom into a range of smaller spaces but primarily act as abstract, sculptural elements that guide visitors through the space, allowing the remainder of the interior to remain largely untouched and the curved ceiling overhead to remain the focus. Visitors are greeted with a sculptural pebble-shaped concrete bar that alludes to the mid-century swimming pools of Los Angeles. A new band of timber wall-lining introduces a warm, finely-crafted element to the space that works in counterpoint to the industrial arc of the ceiling above and frames views through wild, landscaped gardens to the city beyond.