Studio TK is making a major statement at this year’s Fulton Market Design Days, trading last year’s 1,000-square-foot mezzanine presence for a sprawling 10,000-square-foot, three-story pop-up at Morgan’s on Fulton that will include a block party.
The space, located at the corner of Fulton and Morgan Street, puts Studio TK right at the heart of Fulton Market during Chicago Design Week.
The concept driving the entire experience is “Welcome to the Neighborhood” — a natural evolution of the brand’s “Making Space to Belong” theme. “Making Space to Belong focuses on the humanity of furniture and why people are going into the office, specifically around ancillary,” Studio TK Director of Marketing Dan Winer said. “The time that we get to spend together is the reason why people are coming back and why they’re going into the office to have those impromptu collision moments and moments of mentorship.”
This year’s theme builds on that foundation. “It’s about building community, but where do you do that the best? It’s in your neighborhood,” he said. “And neighborhoods change, and neighborhoods move on, and people and the dynamics change over time.”
Perhaps the most striking design decision is what visitors won’t see when they first walk in. “The first floor of our space is all about brand immersion. There’s literally no product on the first floor, which is different,” said Winer. “We wanted to really emphasize that neighborhood feeling.”
Visitors will be guided through a curated “neighborhood walk” before reaching the product floors above. The neighborhood walk will focus on areas of being by yourself, being with a few people, being with a lot of people and how that proximity changes the dynamic of the space.
The second floor introduces a new collection called IKONstudio, a brand dedicated to reissuing iconic archival designs from legends like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Louis Kahn.
The third floor takes on a decidedly different personality. “As you walk into the space, you’re going to walk into a very moody, more hospitality-like environment,” which Winer described as like being with your best friend, sharing a cocktail on a Friday night at a jazz bar.
From there, visitors move onto what he called a four season porch, which is all glass, but can be opened — including the roof.
Studio TK is launching several brand-new collections at Design Days and in keeping with the brand’s philosophy, nearly everything will be orderable on the spot.
Among the highlights is a new product from designer Alyssa Coletti built around the realities of hybrid work. “If you were a hybrid worker only going into the office on Tuesday and Thursday, as an example, you need a place to be able to put your things, but not in this utilitarian locker,” Winer explained. The solution is a product that has upholstered seating intertwined with storage and space division, all in one unit.
Also debuting is a privacy lounge collection with a distinctly residential sensibility. “The cushions are really organic. And loose cushions and pillows and things like that with really organic upholstery to it. So it’s really plush,” Winer said. The collection was designed by Thom Fougere, formerly design director for EQ3. “He hasn’t worked with a lot of contract furniture manufacturers, so he’s kind of new to the contract part of the industry. He’s much more residential to date.”
Extensions to existing lines round out the launches. The Ballad chair from Patrick Norguet gets a new outdoor wireframe version that Studio TK describes as a chair that takes the same shape as Ballad with all the curvature, but now with a wireframe for indoor and outdoor use.
Cesto will get a rework as well. Clique Luxe, designed by Mario Ruiz and launched in January, will also be showcased, featuring tufting, upholstery details and a wood element added to bring in more hospitality and less contract feel in general.
The whole event launches Monday evening with a block party running from 5:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. It fits with the neighborhood theme. The food will be more like a block party than fine dining and the beverages, entertainment and a few small vignettes will shift and change, similarly to how you would experience a friendly gathering in your neighborhood.
For Studio TK, it comes back to something more fundamental than furniture. When the company created “Making Space to Belong,” it took a very hard look at the brand and asked questions about what the brand should be and what it stands for. They kept coming back to the idea of humanity. And that’s a good place to start.