Niwaki Stand - Ambiente

Modular Trade show display system. Douglas Fir, and natural felt cover poplar plywood.

Frankfurt - February 2025

This project revisits our first ever commission for Niwaki, by developing the modular display system we made for them in 2016, to suit international trade fairs and temporary concessions. The central component of that system, which has remained in use ever since, is an 800 x 400mm Douglas Fir tray that can be used both horizontally of vertically to make surfaces and plinths.

The central consideration of this project was the shipping and storage of the component parts of the exhibition system and to enable vertical wall displays to be formed that avoid the need for fixing back to the building fabric (many exhibition fairs don’t allow fixings into their walls).

We supplemented the trays of the original system with equally sized felt wrapped ply panels that continue the language established in previous showroom and shop projects, that can be tiled together with the trays to create flat surfaces for display and hanging of products.

Both of these elements are then packed into a lightweight plywood shipping crate, that becomes the supporting structure onto which the trays and panels can be fixed to make stand. The lids of the crate become the background to the wall panels, and can be fixed to the crates to cantilever upwards.

This new crate system is design to suit a standard euro pallet footprint, and is economical to transport with standard shipping companies. Each crate contains the parts sufficient to make a small counter display and wall panel, but multiple crates can be combined to make larger stands (this one at Ambiente comprised of 7 crates). Incorporating the crates into the stand avoids the need to pay for storage during the fair and enables faster breakdown and departure when the fair closes.