Virgin Atlantic | London Heathrow & New York JFK

The Project

Systematic Art supplied professional art and picture hanging hardware to Virgin Atlantic for use in its Clubhouses at London Heathrow and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Virgin Atlantic wanted a flexible system that would allow artwork within these premium passenger spaces to be changed and repositioned without repeatedly altering finished walls. The objective was to make rotating artwork and photography easier while maintaining the carefully designed character of each Clubhouse.

A Different Approach to Premium Air Travel

Virgin Atlantic built its reputation by approaching air travel differently, combining distinctive design, hospitality and service with a less conventional interpretation of the traditional airline experience.

Today, Virgin Atlantic carries nearly six million passengers annually. For its premium Upper Class customers, that experience begins well before passengers board the aircraft.

The airline's Clubhouses were conceived as destinations in their own right: environments where passengers could dine, work, relax and enjoy themselves before a flight rather than simply wait at the gate.

The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Experience

Virgin Atlantic's Clubhouses have long blurred the distinction between an airport lounge, private members' club and boutique hotel. The airline describes its flagship London Heathrow Clubhouse as more like a five-star hotel than a conventional airport lounge.

Over the years, the Heathrow Clubhouse experience has included restaurant-style dining, cocktail bars, spa and wellness services, hair styling, manicures, facials and massage treatments. Today's Clubhouse continues that philosophy with spaces for dining, working, entertainment and wellness.

Across the Atlantic, Virgin Atlantic's JFK Clubhouse brings the same concept to New York, combining dining and cocktails with distinctive furnishings, entertainment areas and spaces designed for passengers to relax before departure.

Art as Part of the Passenger Experience

Within environments this carefully considered, artwork becomes part of the overall passenger experience. Virgin Atlantic wanted the ability to feature changing artwork and photography while keeping its Clubhouses visually fresh.

The challenge was that a rotating art program requires flexibility. Conventional wall mounting would mean creating new fixing points whenever the size, position or arrangement of the artwork changed.

Systematic Art provided an architectural hanging system that separated the permanent mounting infrastructure from the individual placement of each work of art.

A Modular System for Rotating Artwork

The installation combined Systematic Art's Moderna Picture Rail with aluminum hanging rods and adjustable museum hooks.

Once the rail was installed, artwork could be suspended from the system and repositioned without repeatedly creating new holes in finished wall surfaces. Individual pieces could be moved horizontally along the rail and adjusted vertically using the hanging rods and hooks.

This gave Virgin Atlantic a permanent art display infrastructure while preserving the flexibility required for changing exhibitions.

London Heathrow & New York JFK

Using Systematic Art at both Heathrow and JFK also demonstrated the adaptability of the system across different locations. Each Clubhouse has its own architectural character and reflects the city it serves, yet the underlying requirement remained the same: artwork needed to be presented professionally while remaining easy to change.

Rather than designing a fixed installation around a particular group of paintings or photographs, the hanging system allowed the displays to evolve with the Clubhouses themselves.

Designed Around Change

For hospitality environments, the ability to change artwork without repeatedly repairing walls has practical as well as aesthetic advantages. New artwork can be introduced, existing pieces can be regrouped, and displays can be refreshed while retaining the same architectural hanging infrastructure.

That flexibility was particularly well suited to Virgin Atlantic, a brand whose Clubhouses have continually evolved while maintaining a recognizable design identity.

The Result

Systematic Art provided Virgin Atlantic with a professional and adaptable method for displaying artwork in two of its most important international Clubhouses.

The Moderna Picture Rail, aluminum hanging rods and adjustable museum hooks allowed artwork to become part of the Heathrow and JFK environments while giving the airline the freedom to change displays without repeatedly modifying finished walls.

The project demonstrates how professional picture hanging systems can extend beyond galleries and museums into hospitality, aviation and premium travel environments where architecture, artwork and customer experience all need to work together.

For airport lounges, hotels, hospitality spaces and other professionally designed interiors, explore Systematic Art's gallery, museum and commercial picture hanging systems.