Part of Brighton city centre’s 1.3 acre Hannington Estate redevelopment, Habitat’s newest standalone flagship store is its third largest in the UK. Created by Habitat’s in-house design studio, and featuring over 3000 products, the store is the latest iteration of a retail brand that dates back to 1964, and joins an estate portfolio of three other flagships, plus 11 Mini Habitat stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
“This is our first city-centre flagship store for 10 years, so a really exciting development for Habitat and an example of how we’re evolving store formats and services to suit how customers are shopping for homewares,” comments Habitat MD Clare Askem.
“As our digital sales go from strength to strength, we’re also seeing customers who want to shop in an immersive environment and touch and feel the Habitat products we create. Our long heritage with Brighton means we have many fans who have been asking us to return with a city-centre store, so we felt that to launch our first inspirational flagship environment would really work here.
“Since we’ve opened our doors we’ve had a phenomenal reaction from customers delighted to see us back. We’re now looking forward to making this store a real design hub for Brighton by creating an inspirational atmosphere in which to shop, with regular local collaborations and customer workshops to hero the creative spirit of the city.”
Andrew Foulds, portfolio director at Redevco, the owner and developer of the Hanningtons Estate, comments: “Our vision for the North Street element of the redevelopment project was to extend the premium retail offer already found in East Street and attract the very best brands to Brighton.
“This first new store opening demonstrates that if you create the right environment for retailers, they will come. Habitat leads the way with affordable, contemporary and stylish homeware and they have been a pleasure to deal with on this project, embracing the creative spirit of Brighton and the entrepreneurial nature of the Lanes, which, because of its diversity, attracts shoppers from all over the world.”
Layout and decor
The store is housed across ground and basement floors, and sports a pared-back industrial vibe. Metallic piping is left exposed along with raw concrete surfaces and exposed brick walls painted white to create a pure interior framework.
Customers are first greeted by a central cobalt blue metal stairwell, a glass wrap-around balustrade allowing them to see directly down into the larger basement level from street level.
A dramatic lighting installation – which will be changed regularly with new designs – hangs above this staircase. Oak flooring runs throughout the store, but to the right of the entrance a chequerboard tile floor outlines an installation space within the windows that will house special collections, workshops and events.
The ground floor is mainly allocated to dining, tableware, upholstery and home accessories. Downstairs, a glass ‘goldfish bowl’ halfway down the stairs allows an uninterrupted view into the basement below, which features bedroom furniture, office, and textiles. Black and white chequerboard flooring is also used towards the back of the store within a bright lighting department to visually attract attention and draw customers further into the basement space.
“It’s been important for us to give each new store a unique personality that feels relevant to the building and location it’s in, but with each project we’ve created a very pure white base that will really showcase the products, colour and bold pattern we create,” comments Matthew Long, Habitat’s senior designer.
“The interior design here is stripped right back so there are minimal visual distractions – no large digital screens, imposing fixtures or dramatic architectural details, so that customers focus on the products themselves. The layout too has been designed to draw you down towards the larger basement level to see the wider collection, so we’ve incorporated glass surrounds for light flow, light oak flooring, a lighting installation and the dramatic blue handrail as you enter the store to immediately make you aware that there is more to explore downstairs.”
Fixturing too is minimal, with stripped-back frameworks, open shelving and tabletops to present a wide range of different product styles alongside each other.
“We’ve aimed to punctuate the journey through the whole store with drops of exciting and colourful collections which reflect us at our most Habitat,” comments Amy Rich, Habitat’s visual merchandising manager.
“Long tables with heavily stacked product give a marketplace feel, encouraging customers to touch and feel products, and are ideal for the customer who likes to take time to shop and make their creative decision – especially with our handcrafted products, which differ from piece to piece.”
People and partnerships
A total of 17 Habitat staff work in the store, helping to explain product features and highlight additional options from Habitat’s 4500-strong online collection – following a comprehensive upgrade of the Habitat website, around 65% of the retailer’s sales now originate online.
Habitat has also unveiled a collaborative project partnering with local artists from the area. Working with Sophie Abbott, Becky Blair and Lauri Hopkins, artwork has been translated into a limited-edition series of rugs that will be available in-store. The retailer plans to continue this project each year, asking local artists to submit artwork to be turned into products that will feature in the Habitat collection.
The Brighton store at 23-25 North Street is Habitat’s newest city-centre flagship in 10 years, and covers a footprint of 6500 sqft.
