STEAMhouse – Birmingham City University

We were instructed with the brief to add a fun and inviting seating area for Birmingham City University in their new STEAMhouse Building.

The new campus has a very clear and strong brand identity which utilises five key colours. Taking this as our inspiration, we fabricated a series of furniture with aspects of all brand colours, to really help bring the space to life.

The introduction of the low level planter wall provides a central division to provide a clear queueing system, as well as allowing for different zones of seating. Casual, sofa style booth seats create comfortable coffee bar style seating, and loose dining sets help form new work/dine spaces – creating an extension of the University’s breakout zones.

Additional bespoke poseur height tables fit perfectly into the oversized bay windows, to take full advantage of the view to the street outside, and emphasising the architectural interest of the building.

A colour palette as vivid as this, has been toned down with natural tactile timbers, and more muted beiges and greys. This allows for the colourful furniture to really sing in this space, without detracting from the beautiful bones of the building.