Challenge

85% of materials end up incinerated or as landfill waste. Coach is doing something about it and building a better future for the planet with Coachtopia. In this collaborative lab for innovation’, Made Circular™ principles design out waste, reduce new materials, and help keep products out of landfills by ensuring they can be reused.

How can we showcase Coachtopia at Selfridges’ prestigious Wonder Room in a way that maximises visual impact while being sustainably responsible, and can be easily dismantled and reconfigured for new locations, again and again?

Insight

Our Treasuring Waste approach to the physical space mirrors Coachtopia’s ethos. Afterlife plans were mapped out for everything, helped by our carbon tracking tool XAGzero, and founded on three pillars:

• Reduce or eliminate virgin raw materials
• Made to be remade
• Defined circular pathways that also offer meaningful end-of-life recycling opportunities

Solution

Ambitious and inventive solutions support Coachtopia’s circular ethos across the three pillars – here are a few highlights:

• Coachtopia made a one-of-a-kind tactile material from cutting-room floor leather scraps, which we used to cover tables and display units. Something destined for landfill was transformed into a core part of the spatial identity.
• We worked with a manufacturer to collect offcuts from other projects in the months leading up to the Selfridges pop-up. They meticulously threaded these fragments and backed them onto the world’s first 100% recycled and recyclable acrylic. The result was a unique set of signs made from hundreds of pieces that would have otherwise ended up in the trash.

• Ecoboard was used instead of MDF – benefitting from a negative carbon footprint, this material is manufactured from seasonal agricultural waste like straw, seeds, rice and corn.
• The space was designed and constructed to easily come apart or be split into single materials for reuse and then for recycling at the end of their multiple lives, for example the modular plinths were made with a slot system instead of permanent glue fixings. Some elements travelled on to new pop-up sites. Others live on in Coach flagship stores.
• As Coach couldn’t reuse the bespoke hoarding and specific wall panels, we donated them to Selfridges, where they were repurposed for other Wonder Room brand launches.

Testimonial

“When tasked with delivering the global launch of Coachtopia here in London at Selfridges’ Wonder Room I knew immediately that Studio XAG would be the best partner for the job.

We have worked with Studio XAG on numerous Coach activations so already had an incredible working partnership. The team know how exactly how we work and how to tailor their services to suit our often-demanding needs and timelines. With the added pressure of this being a global launch combined with such a high profile location, the Studio XAG team stepped up their already excellent project management and were able to become an invaluable extension of my team.

Selfridges deemed Coachtopia the most efficiently managed, well-designed, and well-produced project to have ever graced The Wonder Room. I don’t think there is any better testament to StudioXAG’s hard work than that!”

Chris Adams, Senior Creative Production Manager at Tapestry (Coach)