Turf Design Experience Center: When Sound Takes Shape

COMMERCIAL · CHICAGO

Red strips extend from the walls across the ceiling. Around a corner, the lighting turns blue-violet, with seating below the overhead elements. This is the Turf Design Experience Center at THE MART in Chicago, designed with CannonDesign. The center covers approximately 1,728 square meters in total, including a showroom, offices and a prototyping area. Its 2025 showroom scheme, Pathways, offers a choice of two routes: one bright, the other dark.

Red wall strips and lighting enclosing a corridor — Continuous strips line the walls and ceiling of the red corridor, with vertical light strips illuminating the route.

Choosing a route at the entrance

Turf's sound-absorbing products first appear in the public corridor outside the showroom. According to the designers, both the visual and acoustic experience change as visitors move from the corridor into the exhibition space. Inside, they can choose the bright, colorful side or the darker, more intimate route.

Seating and illuminated frames beneath a dark ceiling — Seating sits beneath a dark slatted ceiling, while illuminated frames separate adjacent display settings.

A passage framed by light strips with a route-choice message — A passage runs between dark walls, with light strips on either side and a route-choice message on the wall at the end.

Each route contains a series of small display settings with different colors, lighting and arrangements of components. Openings between the routes offer glimpses from one side into the other.

Entrance wall with a series of illuminated recesses — A series of illuminated recesses lines the wall, with blue and red light extending toward the entrance.

Colored ceiling squares and red and blue display settings — Colored illuminated squares are set into the ceiling grid, with blue seating beside the red passage.

Blue seating and a patterned wall beneath a slatted ceiling — Parallel ceiling strips shift from warm tones to blue, ending at a wall patterned with irregular lines.

Sound-absorbing elements on walls and ceilings

Strips, grids and three-dimensional units are installed on the walls and ceilings. Some run continuously across a surface; others are grouped around seating or display objects. Similar materials are paired with different colors and lighting along the bright and dark routes.

Seating, blue cabinetry and a textured counter — Blue cabinetry and a textured counter stand behind dark seating, beside a brighter area with a long table.

The showroom also presents recycled PET felt products with patterns such as wood grain. The grain is a surface pattern on felt, not solid timber. Cut felt is assembled into components of different shapes for walls and ceilings.

Red passage and a corner illuminated by blue-violet light — Red light illuminates the slatted passage; beyond the corner, blue-violet light strips trace the walls and ceiling.

Products in the workplace

The Turf team also works in the experience center. The offices include both bright and darker areas, along with three spaces for working, resting or conversation: the dark-toned Merlot Lounge, the bright Green Lounge and the more private Groovy Lounge.

Open shelving, seating and wall strips beside a passage — Open shelving and seating line the passage, with red vertical strips continuing onto the ceiling.

Oval table and chairs beneath a grid ceiling — Chairs surround an oval table beneath a grid ceiling.

Seating beside open shelving and the junction of two ceiling treatments — Seating stands beside open shelving, below the junction of warm-toned ceiling strips and the neighboring pale ceiling.

Seating and loop-shaped wall elements in a deep-blue setting — A small table stands beside blue seating, with two sets of loop-shaped elements mounted on the deep-blue wall.

A shared amenity area connects the showroom and offices. Staff use it for collaboration during the working day; during events, it also provides a place for designers, architects and partners to meet.

Pale-purple desk and chair with slats on the wall and ceiling — A pale-purple desk and chair stand near the wall, where vertical slats meet strips on the ceiling.

Long table by the windows beneath blue ceiling strips — A long table and a row of seats run along the windows, with blue ceiling strips above part of the tabletop.

Seating beneath globe pendants and a red ceiling — Red and orange globe pendants hang above a seating group, beneath a ceiling lined with red strips.

Open-plan desks, plants and partitions, and a lounge area by the windows — Desks line the passage, with plants and partitions between the seats and lounge seating by the windows.

Prototyping and showroom updates

A 2025 report on the project describes CNC equipment in the prototyping area, where the team can make and discuss product prototypes. The showroom, offices and prototyping area are all housed in the same experience center.

According to CannonDesign, Turf updates the showroom each year before NeoCon. Products used in the previous year's showroom are then relocated for continued use in communities across Chicago.

Sound-absorbing elements are installed on the showroom's walls and ceilings, while Turf products can also be found in the offices.

Project credits

Project — Turf Design Experience Center (2025 scheme)
Location — THE MART, Suite 1048, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Client — Turf Design
Design — CannonDesign
Collaborating designers — HDR, HED, Eastlake Studio
Lighting design — HDR
Project area — 18,600 sq ft, approximately 1,728 m² (total experience center area)
Scheme year — 2025
Photography — Kendall McCaugherty
Original source — Architizer
Additional sources — CannonDesign; Turf; Interior Design
Editorial adaptation — 01DES