Posted by Janet B. Stroud — October 12, 2022 — Landscape Forms, a leading North American designer and manufacturer of high-design site furniture, structure, LED lighting and accessories, recently introduced Backdrop, a system of modular panels and accessories. Offering a new and uniquely versatile way to create welcoming outdoor destinations, Backdrop can be ideal for campuses, streetscapes, residential communities, and retail and hospitality locations.
Image courtesy of Landscape Forms
Backdrop is another innovative product of Landscape Forms’ collaboration with KEM STUDIO, a partnership that brought to market the acclaimed Upfit adaptive outdoor structure system. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, KEM STUDIO was founded in 2004 by Jonathon Kemnitzer and Brad Satterwhite based on “better design better living,” a philosophy that merged industrial design and architecture to approach projects more holistically. The award-winning firm works with a variety of clients on diverse projects, from concepts with Airstream and kayak helmets for Shred Ready to furniture for Herman Miller and corporate spaces for Adobe.
Landscape Forms Chief Creative Officer Kirt Martin described the system:
Backdrop defines space in a way no one’s ever done before outdoors. We call it Backdrop because the panel system itself doesn’t necessarily shout for the foreground attention. But the environments it creates and the features it provides reconceptualize outdoor spaces in really beautiful and innovative ways.
Thanks to Backdrop’s modular design and engineering, the system creates attractive, high-value destinations for privacy, rest, productivity, and social connection along the busy routes that people frequent most and in otherwise challenging or underutilized outdoor real estate.
Image courtesy of Landscape Forms
Wall-height and bar-height panels in straight or L-shaped configurations, and two additional heights for glass (small and large), are the adaptable base units of Backdrop, offering virtually endless customizability in layout, functionality, and degree of enclosure. The panels are adjoined by posts and connectors that create two-way, three-way or four-way junctions at 90 or 120 degrees.
Backdrop’s integrated power garage posts offer convenient charging for mobile devices. Infill panels can be perforated, glass, planted greenscreen or louvered in vertical or horizontal orientations to enhance ambiance and visual transparency. Glass panels can be paired with the straight louvered panels to provide wind protection and privacy.
Jonathon Kemnitzer, IDSA, co-founder and principal of KEM STUDIO, explained:
Sight lines are some of the most important aspects to the way people perceive space. So, while Backdrop is airy and open to the environment overhead, providing these boundaries thoughtfully and specifically on certain sight lines transforms the outdoor experience with senses of comfort, privacy and space definition.
Accompanying Backdrop’s panels is a collection of accessories to truly tailor the configuration. Integrated peninsula or in-line tables in standing or dining height create comfortable spaces for a meal, work or conversation. Wood or metal bar tops placed on bar-height panels create casual, two-sided seating. Configurable bike racks, coat racks, and shelving units offer convenient storage for personal items, and in-line benches provide additional seating.
Image courtesy of Landscape Forms
For additional product details and images, visit the Backdrop webpage. Landscape Forms is headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI, and includes Kornegay Design of Phoenix, AZ, and Loll Designs of Duluth, MN, in its family of brands, with sales representatives throughout North and South America, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Asia. The award-winning company collaborates with renowned architecture and design groups to develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs. Clients worldwide include municipalities; transit centers; and corporate, college and healthcare campuses; plus such familiar brands as Harvard University, LinkedIn, New York Central Park Conservancy, Google, Coca Cola, U.S. Tennis Association, Nike, National Museum of African American History, Barclays Center and Microsoft.
