How Gravity Co-living worked with Clippings to fit out their latest apartment building in London within just three months.
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Gravity Co-Living is a fresh player in London’s expanding co-living sector, converting houses and apartment blocks into modern co-living spaces. The brand targets young professionals by offering flexible contracts, all-inclusive pricing and a members app connecting the tenants.
Instead of developing buildings from scratch, the company identifies suitable properties that can be adapted for a co-living concept. That’s why the small team needs to act fast as soon as it has identified a suitable building - and an efficient project turn is crucial. When it came to the fit out of their third location in Camden Town, Gravity was looking for a reliable procurement partner that could translate a loose brief into a full furniture scheme with delivery on time and on budget. Here’s why Clippings was the perfect match.
Gravity’s inaugural property was a Victorian building with a modern extension while the Camden Town building is clearly contemporary. “For us, it's not simply about the layout of a space. We care more about what a building has to offer from a brand and design perspective and how we can activate that space”, explains Riccardo Tessaro, co-founder and CEO of Gravity Co-Living, why he doesn’t mind a diverse portfolio.
"The collaboration with Clippings was so smooth. The team understood exactly what we needed, which was extremely important with so little time."
Riccardo Tessaro, co-founder and CEO of Gravity Co-Living
In July, Gravity received the confirmation that they got the building. However, it needed refurbishment as well as an interior concept — promptly. Aware of the time pressure, Riccardo got in touch with Clippings. He had us on the radar as Gravity purchased a couple of lights for their first building through the platform.
The company was on a tight schedule and needed a partner that could help with finding and installing furniture and lighting products as fast as possible. After a rather disappointing quoting experience with another furniture supplier, the project picked up pace when Gravity involved Clippings.
Clippings Sales Director was overseeing the collaboration and Gravity’s main contact, connecting them with our procurement and project management team at the corresponding stages. “We found the relationship with Clippings to be very clear from the outset”, says Susanna, co-founder of Gravity, who made the design decisions. “We saved an entire week just on the design work by partnering with Clippings as our one point of contact to source all furniture and lighting.”
Clippings communicated all costs clearly from the beginning. An alternative supplier presented Gravity with a specification that was 50 percent more expensive than the quote they originally put forward. “That’s a waste of time. Clippings on the other hand was clear: the quote matched the agreed budget — and they followed through!”
“This building itself is very modern but we wanted the spaces to feel cozy”, describes Susanna the brief she handed over to Clippings. Procurement manager Anna was brought in to come up with furniture and lighting options for the bedrooms as well as communal areas. “We had our specific guidelines and Clippings interpreted them very well, the proposals were absolutely on point. For example, we were shown a few types of tables and we picked the one that we liked most. Whenever we had concerns in terms of feel or durability, Clippings addressed them very well.”
All planning was done in July during the pandemic, so in-person meetings were not possible. By working on the product selection using the Clippings project tools, the Gravity team could make decisions fast and collect feedback promptly – all in one place. “I found it very user friendly,” says Riccardo. “I agree”, adds Susanna. “The Clippings team suggested products to us and we flagged our changes or requests on the platform — that worked very smoothly. The structure of each individual step of the procurement process, from receiving a quote to approving and tracking orders, was great. We could see costs clearly and check easily if everything that we thought we ordered had actually been ordered.”
Our senior project manager Cristina advised Gravity on the floor plans and drew the furniture set up for all flats. “The design of the flats was a little challenging — they vary in size, some stretch over more than one floor, some have lots of angles,” says Susanna. “Clippings helped us with the layout and with the decision which room would become the communal area.”
Gravity opted for the Clippings service to have all deliveries collected in our London warehouse until the site was ready for installation so Gravity didn't have to deal with receiving multiple orders throughout the project.
Cristina also oversaw the installation of all furniture on-site remotely. She provided the installation partner chosen by Clippings with detailed schedules and layout plans to ensure all furniture and lighting was set-up on time and at the right place.
Discover how working with Clippings can help you get great design into your spaces – and make the entire procurement process so much easier.
