While many an inner city across the planet chokes on traffic congestion, the Dutch cleverly rely on their egalitarian, clean and efficient mode of transport—bicycles. Based in Amsterdam, Urban Arrow manufactures multipurpose electric cargo bikes inspired by and geared to urban life, proclaiming it ‘smart urban mobility’. The company has boldly stepped up its brand identity by launching a design-led store, showroom and event space rolled into one. Situated at the company’s headquarters in the industrial Sloterdijk area of town, it occupies an approx. 500 sqm. (5,382 sq.ft.) ground floor space which sits right in front of a much bigger unit primarily used for assembly and storage. Thanks to a windowed partition, the latter space and all the activity going on there can actually be seen. Urban Arrow tapped local architecture practice S-P-A-C-E Projects to create a contemporary environment to not only present its concise collection of bicycles, but also communicate its brand values.
Featuring an open-plan configuration, all sections seamlessly connect, but are also unified by a playfully applied blue shade. Mind you, the colour is a nod to natural historian David Attenborough‘s blue marble reference of planet Earth, covering tiled walls, furnishings, and in order to add a tad of playfulness to the boxy dimensions of the venue, it’s captured by sinuous graphics on the floor. Two sections of elongated benches lining the wall are upholstered in a bright red fabric, and provide a contrasting pop of colour. The event space comes with a bar and ample seating areas, both furnished with chairs, stools and sofas from the likes of Hay, Ahrend, Artifort and Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, while Urban Arrow‘s nifty wheelers literally take centre stage, presented on elevated more or less circular platforms and below expansive ceiling lights with an identical circumference, and yes, as if sandwiched. Carefully sourced light fixtures complement the understated aesthetic of the space.
Urban Arrow
Gyroscoopweg 6 (Sloterdijk)
1042AB Amsterdam
Telephone: +31 20 6722968
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
