Sean Cooksley on Interior Design and His Project in the ABBA Arena

The British interior designer Sean Cooksley is the founder and creative director of the design studio Sean Cooksley Design. He studied interior architecture at the Nottingham Trent University, focusing on the design, construction, and remodeling of commercial properties. Sean is mainly focussed on interior design for the hospitality industry, in which he has extensive experience. 

An Expert Architect and Interior Designer for the Hospitality Industry 

As a professional specialization, hospitality design focuses on interiors for commercial spaces such as restaurants, bars, clubs, lounges, coffeehouses, and pop-up restaurants, where gastronomy is combined with other cultural experiences.

Sean Cooksley Design and TechniStone®

Sean has used TechniStone® material in two recent projects. He designed the interior of a café at the Metropolitan University in Cardiff where he improved what was a nondescript black counter with the help of an elegant white TechniStone® design, Brilliant White. For his next, more extensive project in the ABBA Arena in London, he chose Taurus Terazzo White. He used this striking TechniStone® decor for long bartops, on which he elegantly combined the colour black with natural wood accents. 

Sean’s very interesting projects, especially the one in the ABBA arena, so captivated us that we decided to ask him a few questions about them. His answers may help you in choosing the appropriate material for your own interior. Feel free to take inspiration from Sean Cooksley in our gallery!

The ABBA Arena Project

Sean designed the bars and buffets for the ABBA Arena’s concert hall. The fabrication firm Stage One took care of the installation of the stonework. The project included two bars in the concert hall vestibule that were each 12.6 metres long and two 5.6-metre hot food counters. According to Sean, it took eight weeks to assemble the bars. 

The specifications were made pretty clear. ‘The investor wanted to build two bars and two hot food counters where visitors to the ABBA Arena could be served refreshments before and after events. The design had to fit into the overall architecture of the space in order to assure visitors a perfect experience’, says Cooksley. He chose TechniStone® thanks to its excellent technical properties, its high quality, and its long useful life. ‘The counters were meant to feel luxurious, because that is where the interaction between the visitors and the servers takes place. The Terrazo decor filled that requirement to the maximum. Moreover, the contrast of its white colour against the wood-tone background created a marvelous visual impact.’ 

Sean Cooksley is very proud of this project. As he says, it was an honour to be involved in the interior design of the arena, which was specially constructed to celebrate one of the greatest bands of the twentieth century and has a capacity of up to 3,000 people. Where did Sean find his inspiration? ‘The designs for the hospitality areas were inspired by a geometric conception of the forest and main arena designs by a team of creative architects, STUFISH’. 

Take a look at the great work of this British designer and be inspired by its casual white elements or its wilder design combined with wood! The magic of engineered stone is simply irresistible.