Posted by Simone

Our experience in partnering with RMIT Interior Design

Following a move of our warehousing and production to a new location in late 2017 we were presented with a fantastic opportunity to greatly increase the size of our showroom and create a fantastic new workspace for our design and furniture business www.relaxhouse.com.au and also our wholesale Therapeutic Products business www.the-pillow.com.au

The Building - originally a glass manufacturing facility comprised of a space of approximately 1100m with an additional cojoined building 350m. Built in the early 70's and is quite a classic example of Australian warehouse design of the era. With exposed brickwork, massive amounts of natural light and being in an up and coming vibrant location - we felt the building would lend itself perfectly to a redesign and refit while also allowing the original character of the building to not be lost.

However, while we had a general idea of the functions that we needed the building to provide we had little idea of the look, feel and any other factors that would give our building the WOW factor that we were looking for. We were hoping to see a range of creative ideas, looks and functions and this is when we thought the partnership with RMIT might give us the designs we required but also provide real-life skills and experience for the Associate degree interior design study.

Relaxhouse offers a wide range of modern dining chairs, bar stools and contemporary dining tables

Relaxhouse are in preparing students for the future.

I contacted the interior design department and had the pleasure of chatting with Jennifer Crowley who organised a site visit with Maddie Granata and Jane Mancini where I showed them our building, discussed our ideas and also went through our requirements as a brick and mortar business. Once it was agreed that our project was worth doing for the students a time was arranged to bring the students for a site visit and discuss what our requirements were as a business. The meeting was fantastic - very enthusiastic and plenty of questions - and was attended by Maddie and the 25 students.

About 4 weeks later we had presentations at RMIT and were blown away with the concepts and range of ideas presented. It was exactly what we had wanted - when we didn't know what we wanted! The ideas and quality of work and presentation was incredible and a huge thanks to all the students for your contribution. Following the initial presentations a final 6 were chosen to do a final presentation at our location and the quality of work from all six finalists was outstanding.

If you have a project which you think would be benefial for the development of RMIT interior design students please contact Jane Mancini at [email protected] or Nancy Everyingham at [email protected] to fully discuss your project.