Starr Design Wins Canadian Design Award For Unique Big Box Design Approach

At the Urban Encounters trade show in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, Chicago-based design firm, Starr Design Associates, Inc. received a distinguished BRONZE STANDING AWARD in the retail showroom category for their experiential interior design of Consolidated Gypsum’s Edmonton South Showroom. The award was presented by Interior Designers of Alberta (IDA) on 5 October 2011.

Embedding Design Logistics Within The Program

Starr presents an alternative model to the standard shopping environment—one that places a greater value on the human experience. Coined Design Logistics, the method employs a fluid creative process to address complex problems with solution strategies centered around designed experiences. Design Logistics establishes a framework for cultivating possibilities that are flexible, adaptive and sustainable.

Starr conceived the interior environment as a 3-dimensional display for distributed building products. As an alternative model to the typical large scale retail shopping environment, Starr placed greater value on experiential design, empowering the consumer with the ability to investigate possibilities and create meaningful solutions. Shoppers are offered greater product options and educational resources. Mock-up capabilities are built into the design, and visitors have the ability to observe integrated product systems performing in an installation application.

The Consolidated Gypsum (CG) building supply distribution campus offers a retail showroom with display and product resources to service a diverse market that includes contractors, design professionals and do-it-yourself consumers. A key objective for CG president and managing partner Hans Sturm was to create a high-end showroom experience and display an impressive collection of integrated ceiling systems and wall products. The project conveys the client’s evolutionary business goals to provide exemplary customer service and ongoing product advancements, education and technology resources. Sturm said, “I envisioned the facility as a work in progress, allowing for product development, learning opportunities and technology innovation.”

Starr Design Associates, Inc. is a resource design practice that fosters a multidisciplinary approach to design initiatives with a focus on interior environments and visual communication strategies. Founding principal and creative director Yetta Starr has more than twenty five years of commercial design experience providing services for corporations, manufacturers and institutions. According to Starr, the design team’s mission for the Consolidated Gypsum project was “to embed Design Logistics within the project to allow for progressive variation and human valued participation to fulfill the client’s present and future goals.”