Q&A: ABI enlists Conran & Partners to deliver flagship showroom
As ABI Interiors prepares to open its new flagship showroom designed by Conran & Partners during Clerkenwell Design Week, Mark Poulain reflects on how intentional, human-centred design has delivered a resource for the UK design community, not just a commercial space.
Why did you select Conran & Partners to design the new showroom, and what was the brief?
For us, choosing a design partner for the showroom was never just about finding someone who could design a space beautifully. It had to be a genuine alignment of values. Conran & Partners have a long and distinguished track record of designing spaces that are deeply human-centred, that prioritise how people actually experience and move through an environment. That philosophy resonated strongly with us.
The brief was centred on creating a destination, not just a display space. We wanted somewhere that felt like a natural home for the design community, a place where architects, specifiers, and interior designers could come to be inspired, to experiment and to have real conversations about the products they’re bringing into their projects. We asked Conran & Partners to balance that sense of openness and collaboration with the kind of considered, refined aesthetic that ABI Interiors stands for. We didn’t want it to feel like a showroom in the traditional sense. We wanted it to feel like a space that reflects how our products actually live, in beautifully designed homes, hotels and hospitality environments.
With the flagship showroom debuting during Clerkenwell Design Week, how does it stand out in an area renowned for great design?
Clerkenwell sets an extraordinary benchmark, so we were never going to stand out through spectacle alone. What makes 250 Goswell Road distinctive is its clarity – the sense that every decision in the space has been made for a reason.
The ground floor is conceived as the hub, where you’re welcomed in, where you understand the brand, where conversation happens. Downstairs is the product gallery: high-density, immersive, where you can explore the depth and detail of the range. Together they tell a complete story. Clerkenwell Design Week felt like the right moment to tell it, because the people walking through our doors are precisely the people this space was made for.
How did Conran & Partners bring ABI Interiors’ design philosophy to life in the showroom?
What Conran & Partners understood very quickly is that ABI’s design philosophy isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about the relationship between how something looks, how it performs and how it endures. Those three things are inseparable for us.
They translated that into the physical space in a really thoughtful way. Every element has been considered. The materials, the proportions, the way products are contextualised within the space all tell a coherent story. Rather than presenting products in isolation, the showroom places fixtures within settings that feel genuinely liveable, which is important because our customers are designing spaces for real people. We want them to be able to picture how our products perform not just on launch day, but years down the line. Conran & Partners grasped that idea and ran with it. The result is a space that feels both aspirational and grounded, which, is exactly what we were hoping for.
How does this opening support the wider design community, and what does it signify for ABI’s growth in the UK?
For ABI, this is a significant moment in our UK growth story. ABI was born in Australia, and as we continue to build our international presence, this marks our commitment to a genuine long-term investment in being present, useful and connected within the design community here.
This showroom is a resource for the design community as much as it is a commercial space. We’re positioning it as a hub, somewhere people can come for consultations, to explore specification options, to attend events and panel talks, to connect with peers. We’re already thinking about the kinds of conversations we want to host there beyond CDW, because the space deserves to be active and alive year-round.
What’s next for ABI Interiors?
We’re focused on cementing real permanence within the Clerkenwell community. In the immediate term, that means developing the relationships we formed during Clerkenwell Design Week. We want to show the community that our showroom is a genuine destination, not just a CDW fixture.
Beyond Clerkenwell Design Week, we’re continuing to develop our commercial hospitality offer, which has been a growing focus for us. Our R&D team is deep into the next generation of products that look to offer the durability, intuitiveness and longevity that specifiers and their clients need. And we’re expanding our reach across the UK trade community, building relationships with architects, interior designers and specifiers who may know ABI by reputation but haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience the full range up close. That’s ultimately what the showroom is for: bringing people closer to what we do and why we do it.
