f.r.a. Designs Sustainable Wayfinding and Placemaking for Multistory, Birmingham

Design studio f.r.a. has created the wayfinding and placemaking scheme for Multistory, a dynamic new destination for work, retail and leisure in the UK’s second city, Birmingham.

Two buildings, totalling 295,000 sq ft, are being reimagined to feature the city’s largest amenity space for people to connect, collaborate and focus. The first phase of Multistory, now complete, includes 27,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space on the ground and lower-ground floors linked by a 15,000 sq ft indoor-outdoor bar and café featuring a large 2,000 sq ft terrace and a 100-seat auditorium.

The central space is unique to Birmingham for its size and range of amenities and has been created to establish a sense of community and connection between employees and their place of work.

Award-winning and B Corp certified f.r.a., with studios in London and Shrewsbury, worked with their client Railpen and design team Hawkins\Brown, V7 and F37 Studio to design a wayfinding and placemaking scheme that channels the building’s spirit of fresh thinking and geometric clarity. The design solution covers the whole user experience from the car parks, end-of-trip facilities, receptions, publicly accessible lobby spaces and circulation areas.

Inspired by the Multistory brand’s bold visual language, the f.r.a. team developed a suite of wayfinding products using Durat—a vibrant, ecologically sensitive material that brings colour and sustainability to every sign. The design language is crisp and contemporary, while ensuring clarity and ease of navigation for all users.

On the materials featured, f.r.a.’s Project Director, Jamie Trippier, adds: 

“Durat was a great fit for the project. It’s expressive and comes in hundreds of colours, allowing us to match the brand’s vibrant palette in Durat’s confetti terrazzo effect. Very unique. Their products are at least 30% recycled, produced at a carbon neutral factory in Finland and they have a thorough end-of-life recycling programme.”

f.r.a.’s design for the project draws inspiration from the location, brand and interior design. Connectivity and rhythm are expressed through vertical lines and extruded elements that pay homage to the brand’s playfulness and rich interior design. The result is a cohesive, human-centred wayfinding experience that elevates Multistory’s identity and enhances the daily journeys of its community.

Wesley Meyer, Creative Director of f.r.a., says on the thinking behind the design route:

“We included subtle local Birmingham references such as the woven placemaking graphic, as the site was a former carpet factory, and the lobby bar’s sign taking design cues from the famous Rum Runner club where Duran Duran was the house band.”

Emily Atkinson, Asset and Transaction Manager at Railpen, said:

“Multistory has been conceived by Railpen to appeal directly to employees, setting a new standard in the city for workspaces. The team has more than lived up to that brief, delivering a very creative, effective, and sustainable approach to the wayfinding and placemaking. It puts people first and will play an important role in ensuring they enjoy Multistory, which is a primary objective.”

The boldly reimagined space also features up to 40,000 sq ft of refurbished Grade A standard sustainable workspaces—the largest floorplate in Birmingham—with a net-zero embodied carbon strategy. The offices are due to be complete during September.

Multistory is located in the heart of Birmingham city centre at Colmore Square, within an area committed to creating safe cycle routes and pedestrianised zones, with local bars, restaurants, retail and major rail hubs all within minutes’ walk.