How Backdrop is Redefining the Outdoor Spaces
presented by Landscape Forms
Designed in collaboration between Landscape Forms and Kansas City design firm KEM STUDIO, Backdrop is an innovative system of modular panels, posts and accessories that’s changing the way designers conceptualize adaptable, multi-functional outdoor gathering space.
The concept was inspired during the creation of Upfit, Landscape Forms’ award-winning adaptive outdoor structure system that quickly became a sought-after solution for designers of high-profile outdoor spaces.
“Backdrop defines space in a way no one’s ever done before outdoors,” describes Landscape Forms Chief Innovation Officer, Kirt Martin. “Thanks to its totally modular design and engineering, Backdrop is unlimited in its ability to create attractive, high-value destinations along busy routes, in open campus space, even in challenging or underutilized locations. It’s truly a ‘backdrop’ for life and living virtually anywhere.”
Adapting to and inspiring designers’ creativity, the system elegantly defines and activates the outdoor spaces that become new staples in daily life. Wall-height and bar-height panels are the versatile base units of Backdrop, offering virtually endless customizability in layout, functionality, and degree of enclosure. And, to truly tailor its purpose and presence, Backdrop’s selection of accessories includes integrated tables, two-sided bar tops, built-in benches, storage, bike and coat racks, and power garage charging modules.
More than physically defining space, Backdrop uses this high degree of adaptability to craft deep human and emotional connections with its users. The potential footprints range from an individual booth or nook, to a productive work and meeting space, to a large and branching outdoor gathering and dining space. And allowing these new destinations to appear seamlessly in people’s daily lives, throughout the paths people frequent the most, Backdrop enhances the day-to-day with outdoor experiences that are novel and surprising, yet intuitive and sought out for their functionality.
On the origins of Backdrop, Brian Revoir, Senior Designer at Landscape Forms, explains, “One of its main inspirations was the new category of outdoor space that emerged during COVID—the reframing and reclaiming empty or underused space on the streets to create new value for people.”
“It was about using minimal infrastructure to create destinations that still have a sense of place. That’s what we’re doing with Backdrop, except in a much more polished, high-quality, and highly-designed way,” Revoir continues. “The feeling you get when you see Backdrop is different than simply seeing a table and chairs set up outside—there are strong feelings of comfort, security, and privacy that go a long way in creating a space where someone really wants to be.”
Published on May 11, 2023
