Eco Outdoor Melbourne was a ‘fixture’ on Church Street in Richmond. But after many years, it was time to make a move – to a 1920s warehouse-style red brick building, also in Richmond. Once used as a mechanics warehouse that serviced prestige cars, it’s now a showcase for Eco Outdoor products – with over 100 different materials and items thoughtfully displayed over 1,000 square metres.

Although the original heritage-listed façade and timber trusses remain, there’s little else that remains of this 1920s warehouse, complete with its soar tooth roof – even the highlight windows are new, redesigned to allow for both cross-ventilation, purging hot air during the warmer months and increasing the natural light. However, there’s still a sense of the past with a number of the internal brick walls retained – but opened up to allow for more fluid spaces.

Some of the strategic design moves included creating two mezzanine areas at either end of the warehouse, with clear balustrades that allow for transparency from one end of the warehouse to the other. With a brief to use as many different Eco Outdoor products as possible, the direction was to simulate the outdoor settings found in one’s home, be this a detached house, a townhouse, an apartment or another typology. So, rather than carving up spaces, there are settings that suggest possibilities – an outdoor setting for example, with an open fireplace at the centre of the arrangement. And instead of turf, there’s a circular ‘carpet’ made from various stone fragments that allow customers to see the choices of what stone to use for their own outdoor spaces. Other settings are framed by feature stone walls, with chaise lounges suggesting a swimming pool beyond – or perhaps a concealed tennis court.

Pivotal to the design is the open kitchen, with its in-situ concrete bench and bar stools that allow for special evenings and events. For those who can’t quite envisage what certain materials or furniture will look like in their own settings, the new Eco Outdoor Melbourne showroom is perfectly suited. And while it may not be in the same league as the Sydney Opera House, there’s a sculpture at the entrance by Mika Utzon Popov, grandson of the Opera House designer, Jorn Utzon, that’s been thoughtfully illuminated via an oculus.

Words by Stephen Crafti