PEARSONLLOYD
MAKING SPACES
INTELLIGENT
How do you make people feel good as they travel through the sky in a compressed
aluminium tube? Questions like this are at the core of PearsonLloyd’s work
T
he data may indicate that a
certain number of people can
fit into a space, explains studio
founder Tom Lloyd – “but do they want
to be in it?” he asks.
“Our work is about making people feel
the best they can in what is often a
fundamentally reduced space – without
compromising on function,” adds
co-founder, Luke Pearson.
Established in 1997, design studio
and consultancy PearsonLloyd has honed
this skill working across a breadth of
industries: in the workplace for brands
such as Steelcase, Teknion and Bene; in
hospitality for IHG Crowne Plaza and Virgin
Voyages; in the public realm for the City
of Bath and hospital A&E departments
nationwide; and, of course, in aviation.
To date, PearsonLloyd has developed
award-winning Upper Class seats for
Virgin Atlantic, and business and economy
class seats for Lufthansa. The studio’s
most recent innovation for the latter brand
– launching in 2020 – is a complete rethink
of how space can be used in an aircraft
to provide different experiences for
different passengers.
“Working across such a range of
sectors means that ideas cross over and
new ones develop,” says Lloyd. “It enables
us to innovate.”
The following four projects, selected
by PearsonLloyd, demonstrate how the
studio’s intelligent use of space can
transform the user experience, and how
the products and services that materialise
from its research have shifted the market.
CAN A BEDROOM ALSO
BE A SHARED SPACE?
In 2011 IHG Crowne Plaza asked
PearsonLloyd to rethink the guest
rooms across its 450 hotels in the USA.
“Initially the studio’s strategy was
just applied to rooms,” explains Sangeetha
Ramkumar, a global design director at IHG.
“Now, anything you see that’s new in
Crowne Plaza is based on PearsonLloyd’s
strategy, from uniforms to cutlery. It’s
1. PEARSONLLOYD CREATED SPACE
FOR A WORK-LOUNGE AREA BY
RETHINKING THE CONVENTIONAL
POSITION OF THE BED. IHG CROWNE
PLAZA, 2015
2. THIS PATENTED PLAN SHOWS
THAT BY TRIANGULATING THE HOTEL
GUESTROOM, SPACE IS USED MORE
EFFICIENTLY; THERE ARE CLEAR
SIGHTLINES BETWEEN THE TV, BED
AND SOFA, ENABLING MULTIPLE
GUESTS TO USE THE SPACE IN
COMFORT, BOTH INDEPENDENTLY OR
TOGETHER. IHG CROWNE PLAZA, 2015
2
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aircraftinteriorsinternational.com
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060 ANNUAL SHOWCASE 2020
/aircraftinteriorsinternational.com