Hotel Lobby — Modular Seating

The lobby had no fixed walls — the seating itself had to create the spatial zones. A serpentine modular system in a single fabric and silhouette language was the brief.

We produced 12 individual modules that connect in multiple configurations. The hotel received a single large serpentine for the central lobby zone and the ability to reconfigure for events.

All modules are upholstered in a single fabric batch for visual continuity. The connection hardware is concealed and tool-free — hotel staff can reconfigure in under 20 minutes without specialist help.

Modularity is a manufacturing problem before it is a design one. Twelve modules that must join in any order have to be dimensionally identical at every connection face, so the tolerance that matters is not the width of a module but the variance between modules. Each was built to the same jig and checked at the connection edge rather than only overall.

Performance linen was specified over a decorative upholstery fabric because a lobby is the hardest-wearing soft furnishing in a hotel: constant traffic, luggage, spills, and cleaning cycles that a residential fabric would not survive. Covers can be cleaned in place, and individual modules can be pulled from the arrangement for deeper repair without the lobby losing its seating.