West's Furniture Showroom, Heritage furniture showroom in Fortitude Valley, Australia
West's Furniture Showroom is a heritage-listed building on Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, built as a modernist retail space for furniture. It features large display windows facing the street and a cantilevered awning that extends over the footpath.
The building was designed in 1952 by architect Karl Langer, a European emigre who brought modernist ideas to Queensland. From 1956 to 1962, it served as Queensland's main outlet for Knoll furniture, a role that placed it at the center of post-war design trade in the region.
The showroom was one of the first places in Brisbane where European modernist furniture was put on display in a purpose-built retail space. The large windows facing the street still give a clear sense of how the layout was meant to draw the eye toward the objects inside.
The building sits on Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley, a neighborhood that is easy to reach on foot or by public transport from central Brisbane. A daytime visit works best, as the large street-facing windows are most readable in natural light.
Karl Langer, who designed the building, was an Austrian architect who had fled Europe and rebuilt his career in Australia. This building is one of the clearest examples of his work still standing in Queensland today.
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