In Seoul, SML translates the traditional structure used to cultivate ginseng into a contemporary interior feature for the exhibition, promotion store, and sales center for Korean brand Punggi. The minimal, all-white space pays homage to the history of the plant, reimagining the traditional ‘Sampoeojang’ module with modern timber flair that weaves through the space to shape a retail area. With a modular form, products presented in a museum-like manner invite visitors to learn more about ginseng’s cultivation processes and the brand’s identity, as well as to purchase Punggi’s creations at the end of their journey
all images by Kyungsub Shin
SML tells the story of ginseng amid the white walls
Embracing a passive branding strategy,SML’s design focuses on forming a spatial image that conveys the reputation of Punggi Korean Ginseng to a broader audience by spotlighting a differentiated, and yet-unknown image of the brand. The exhibition space, cloaked in pure white, serves as a canvas for the story of ginseng, with sophisticated wooden furniture embodying the brand’s inherent values. This design further seeks to subtly guide visitors through a journey that integrates brand exploration with the natural progression towards consumption.
The promotion wall takes center stage, transforming the main products into objects of art through careful curation. In a thoughtful play of physical materials and display methods, the wooden furniture-type structure of the display stand introduces a compelling contrast, as well as exuding a sense of warmth into the space. Each display case, set against the whiteness of the room, showcases products along a circular wooden member that softly circulates the space.
Punggi Ginseng Cooperative Association store in Seoul
The Korean Peninsula, famed for being the world’s premier ginseng producer, owes its reputation to a blessed natural environment. The Punggi Korean Ginseng, which is recognized as the best quality among them, is a perennial plant with a slow growth rate and specific cultivation requirements, is grown in a sunshade system called Sampoeojang over three to six years. In this way, this structure is considered a ‘ground for cultivation’, the very ‘house of ginseng’, recalled in SML’s design concept.
SML creates an exhibition, promotion store, and sales center for the Korean brand
the promotion wall takes center stage, transforming the products into objects of art through careful curation
Stockholm studio Halleroed has designed fashion brand Toteme’s flagship store in London, which features a sculpture by artist Carl Milles and a steel sofa by designer Marc Newson.
Halleroed designed the store, located on Mount Street in the upmarket Mayfair area, together with Toteme founders Elin Kling and Karl Lindman. The duo wanted its third flagship to feature nods to the brand’s heritage.
“We like the idea of keeping certain elements that we find in our Swedish heritage,” Lindman told Dezeen at the store’s launch event.
“It can be by using certain vintage pieces, or like in [the brand’s Mercer Street store] in New York, we had a collaboration with Svenskt Tenn,” he added. “It’s about lifting this notion of Scandinavian design or Swedish design.”
A metal sofa by Marc Newson is among the sculptural details in the store
Halleroed drew on the space itself when designing the interior, focussing on how the light falls.
“We were inspired by the space itself with beautiful original windows letting the daylight in,” Halleored co-founder Ruxandra Halleroed told Dezeen.
“The upper part of the windows was partly hidden, which was a shame, so we redesigned the ceiling with a half vault towards the front to show the full height of the windows.”
A piece by sculptor Carl Milles sits by the entrance
The design also references the work of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa as well as the Swedish Grace movement.
“We were also inspired by the Swedish Grace period – around 1920-30s – that has an elegant and pure design, something we think works well for Toteme as a brand,” Halleroed co-founder Christian Halleroed told Dezeen.
“Also the work of Carlo Scarpa we find interesting, more as a mindset on how to work with details and textures to create a subtle elegance and luxury.”
A black mirrored cube features at the rear of the store
Kling and Lindman wanted to keep the feel of “very posh” Mount Street where the store is located, while also underlining the space’s minimalist feel.
To do so, a lot of effort was put into the colour palette and different textured materials used for the flagship store.
“We worked with an off-white palette in different tones and different textures,” Ruxandra Halleroed said.
“The textures are as important as colour and materials. For walls, we have a glossy, off-white stucco, ceiling in same colour but matte. The floor is in a beige, honed limestone with a so-called Opus pattern.”
Halleroed chose to redesign the store’s ceiling to reveal its windows
In the middle of the Toteme shop, Halleroed created a stone-clad cube that holds shelves, vitrines and niches filled with artworks.
“The volume in the middle is clad with the same limestone, but in three different textures: honed, bush hammered and spiked texture, combined with oxidised dark brass,” Christian Halleroed said.
The store also features a square black volume in the back made from high-gloss stucco and dark brass.
The minimalist interior has a beige, white and black colour palette
To contrast the minimalist interior, the store is decorated with multiple artworks, including a sculpture by Milles and Newson’s intricately woven steel Random Pak Twin sofa, which Lindman found online.
“He’s a slave to auction houses,” Kling told Dezeen.
“So he found it and sent it to me and I loved it, and we also have a Marc Newsom piece in every store,” she added. “So we thought, ‘this one’s for the Mount Street store’. At that time we only had the signed contract, nothing else.”
The store is located on Mount Street in central London
The two founders and Halleroed decided on the gypsum Milles sculpture for the Toteme store together, with Halleroed designing a custom niche to place it in that is made from black high-gloss stucco to contrast the pale artwork.
Halleroed also added vintage Swedish Grace furniture to the store, including armchairs and a coffee table by furniture designer Otto Schulz, a daybed and a mirror in pewter made for the Stockholm Exhibition 1930.
The studio has designed a number of other store interiors, including a Paris boutique for French brand L/Uniform and an Acne Studios store in Chengdu that aimed to combine the futuristic and primitive.
New York architecture studio BoND has used tubular lighting to create a bright yellow glow inside this men’s apparel store on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The first flagship for cult fashion label Le Père occupies a 1,000-square-foot (93-square-metre) corner unit on Orchard Street.
The flagship store for Le Père is largely painted white to allow the bright clothing to stand out
Utilising the store’s large exposure to the street, BoND opted to create an interior that would be just as impactful from the exterior as it is once inside.
“BoND designed the store to feel like a canvas, highlighting the design elements of the clothes while ensuring the space is a place that creators feel encouraged to spend time in,” the team said.
A central column is encased in a translucent yellow box
The firm’s approach was to leave the majority of the space white, allowing the boldly patterned clothing to stand out, then highlighting the fitting rooms using bright yellow lighting and surfaces.
A structural column in the centre of the store encased in a translucent box is also fitted with lights to give off a sunny glow.
Yellow lighting installed in the fitting rooms emits an inviting glow
This yellow aura is immediately apparent from the street and is meant to entice passersby to step inside.
Neon lighting has seen a resurgence in retail and other commercial interiors of the past year, appearing everywhere from a Brooklyn cafe to a Calgary chicken shop.
The tube lights were installed on either side of mirrors in the fitting rooms, which are also yellow
At Le Père, other elements like the tops of vintage Artek furniture are coloured red and black, to borrow from the street signs across the neighbourhood.
Floor-to-ceiling curtains along the back wall create a soft and neutral backdrop for the apparel, which is displayed on industrial metal racks.
Custom furniture pieces were designed by BoND and fabricated by Lesser Miracle
Wide-plank wood floors are laid across the main shop floor, which doubles as a space for gatherings, conversations, exhibitions and events.
Custom furniture pieces including a curved bench were designed by BoND and fabricated by Brooklyn design and art studio Lesser Miracle.
“The design scheme blurs the lines between a store, a home and an art studio – a space that is both aspirational and livable, combining contemporary and historic elements as a playful strategy,” said the studio.
On the exterior, a generous portion of the facade is given over to a giant billboard that Le Père will use to present its seasonal visual campaigns and artwork by the brand’s collaborators.
A large portion of the facade is given over to a billboard to display the brand’s campaigns
The debut placement for Fall/Winter 2023 was titled And Sometimes Boys and influenced by the work of Korean visual artist Nam June Paik.
BoND was founded by Noam Dvir and Daniel Rauchwerger, who previously designed the global headquarters and showroom for the Brazilian brand PatBo in New York.
The glow from the yellow lighting is designed to entice in shoppers on the Lower East Side. Photo by BoND
The duo earlier overhauled an apartment in Chelsea for themselves, turning the dark, divided space into a light-filled home.
The photography is by Stefan Kohli, unless stated otherwise.
LA studio PlayLab Inc has created a flagship store that contains a sky blue conversation pit at its centre for local clothing brand MadHappy.
PlayLab Inc split the West Hollywood store into two distinct zones – one for retail space and the other for “intimate gathering spaces”, including a cafe and a courtyard.
PlayLab Inc has created a flagship store for LA clothing brand MadHappy
“Our collective goal with the design was to put space for conversation at the heart of the retail experience, creating a place that is equal parts for community dialogue and product,” PlayLab Inc co-founder Jeff Franklin told Dezeen.
“To do this we split the space down the middle, making one half a clear utility for shopping and the other a collection of intimate gathering spaces.”
The space was divided into separate zones for gathering and retail
Visitors enter the 2,800-square-foot (260-square-metre) store through a glass facade, which leads into a large open space with powder blue concrete flooring running throughout.
At the entrance, a blue bench emerges from a small exterior porch, while a boulder sits opposite.
A cafe and courtyard were placed at the back of the store
Towards one side, the store contains a 70’s style conversation pit underneath a large skylight. Plush, sky-blue couches line the seating area, with satin aluminium side tables by Berlin-based studio New Tendency placed alongside them.
Along an adjacent limewashed wall, the studio installed built-in shelving flanked by large custom wooden speakers by New York music studio designer Danny Keith Taylor of House Under Magic.
The courtyard was populated with a single tree and green-stained plywood stools by Waka Waka
The social area leads into a small open-air courtyard populated by a single Tree Aloe installed by Cactus Store and green-stained plywood stools by LA studio Waka Waka.
The same green plywood was used to line the takeout window of the store’s Pantry cafe, which sits in an enclosed corner and serves local and global cuisines from brands including Japanese-based café Hotel Drugs and LA bakery Courage Bagels.
Custom signage was installed along the cafe’s takeout window
A custom lightbox and a large standing menu were installed next to the takeout window to display the cafe’s signage and goods.
In the remaining interior, PlayLab Inc created a large metallic “retail bar” that spans the shop’s length for “open views of the product”, according to Franklin. The studio also dispersed custom Lego-like benches around the space, which were covered in a candy apple red gloss.
The store will act as a retail space and venue
Faux-stone stools and a bench were installed throughout the space.
The store also contains a multimedia room, called the Local Optimist Space, a creative venue that will host audio and visual artwork.
“The design was inspired by the concept of conversation between things – a balance of scales, materials and textures,” said Franklin.
This is the first flagship store for the clothing brand MadHappy, which previously operated from a host of pop-up concepts and stores.
Local designers worked on furniture and other pieces for the store
“From the beginning, physical retail has been essential to Madhappy and its success. We’ve always viewed our shops as spaces that go beyond something purely transactional – we want them to allow our community to engage with Madhappy beyond what’s possible digitally,” MadHappy co-founder Mason Spector said in a statement.
Other recent projects by PlayLab Inc also include a plexiglass skatepark for Vans and a lifesize toy racetrack set for a Louis Vuitton menswear show.
A curvilinear thatched hut has been paired with terracotta-hued tiles at the Amsterdam store for homeware brand Polspotten, which was designed by local studio Space Projects.
The studio created the store to straddle a shop and an office for Polspotten, a furniture and home accessories brand headquartered in the Dutch capital.
Visitors enter the Polspotten store via an oversized triangular entranceway
Characterised by bold angles and arches, the outlet features distinctive terracotta-coloured walls and flooring that nod to traditional pots, Space Projects founder Pepijn Smit told Dezeen.
“The terracotta-inspired colours and materials refer to the brand’s first product, ‘potten’ – or pots,” said Smit, alluding to the first Spanish pots imported by Erik Pol when he founded Polspotten in the Netherlands in 1986.
The interconnected spaces are delineated by cutouts
Located in Amsterdam’s Jordaan neighbourhood, the store was arranged across a series of open-plan rooms, interconnected by individual geometric entryways.
Visitors enter at a triangular opening, which was cut away from gridded timber shelving lined with multicoloured pots that mimic totemic artefacts in a gallery.
A curvilinear thatched hut provides a meeting space
The next space features a similar layout, as well as a plump cream sofa with rounded modules and sculptural pots stacked in a striking tower formation.
Travelling further through the store, molten-style candle holders and Polspotten furniture pieces were positioned next to chunky illuminated plinths, which exhibit amorphously shaped vases finished in various coral-like hues.
Accessed through a rectilinear, terracotta-tiled opening, the final space features a bulbous indoor hut covered in thatch and fitted with a light pink opening.
The hut provides a meeting space for colleagues, according to the studio founder.
“The thatch, as a natural material, absorbs sound as well,” explained Smit.
The store provides an art gallery-style space for homeware
Next to the hut, Space Projects created an acoustic wall illustrated with “hieroglyphics” of Polspotten products, which references the gallery-like theme that runs throughout the outlet.
“The store was inspired by Polspotten’s use of traditional techniques combined with a collage of their reinterpreted archetypes,” said Smit.
It is also used as an office space
Elsewhere in Amsterdam, Dutch practice Studio RAP used 3D printing and algorithmic design to create a “wave-like” facade for a boutique store while interior designer Linda Bergroth created the interiors for the city’s Cover Story paint shop to streamline the redecorating process for customers.
3D-printed shelving structures informed by Catalan-modernist buildings were used for shelving in this store designed by External Reference for a Spanish jewellery brand.
Experimental jewellery designer Adriana Manso asked Carmelo Zappulla’s studio External Reference to develop a suitably unusual interior concept for her first physical store in the city.
The store is in the Eixample district
The project involved designing a window display and shelving for the 25-square-metre store, which is located in Barcelona’s Eixample district just a few metres from the house where Manso was born.
Manso is known for her playful pieces made from recycled plastic, which she wanted to display in a space that evokes the luxury feel of an haute-couture boutique.
It features a 3D-printed interior informed by architecture
External Reference sought to combine the contemporary plasticity of La Manso’s jewellery with motifs influenced by Barcelona’s early 20th-century architecture, including the building in which the store is situated.
“Our design concept revolved around bringing the exterior facade inside, creating a melted and fluid background that would serve as an artistic canvas for showcasing the jewellery,” Zappulla told Dezeen.
“By blending the expressive elements of Catalan modernism with the organic forms inspired by La Manso design, our goal was to craft a visually captivating environment that elevates the overall shopping experience.”
External Reference created wavy shapes for the space
The designers selected fragments from the decorative facade and abstracted them using a process involving hand drawing and computational design techniques.
In particular, floral details from the elaborate canopy at the store’s entrance were reinterpreted as large rosettes incorporating futuristic glitches and bas-reliefs.
The organic shapes form shelving units that range in height from 90 centimetres to 1.7 metres. Jewellery and accessories are displayed on the shelves, as well as on a small table at the centre of the space.
The furniture is made from biodegradable cellulose and was produced with technical support from specialist 3D-printing workshop La Máquina.
Zappulla and his team refined the digital models to optimise them for printing. This involved splitting them into manageable parts that could be processed by the machine’s robotic arm.
The aim was to provide a neutral backdrop
All of the printed elements are finished in a muted off-white shade that matches the rest of the interior and provides a neutral backdrop for displaying the jewellery.
Large, mirrored surfaces help to make the interior feel more expansive, while spotlights provide targeted illumination for highlighting the collection.
In addition to the main furniture, the designers also developed a window display and 3D-printed signage that extend the store’s conceptual design out into the street.
The La Manso interior has a muted colour palette
Large-scale 3D-printing technology offers designers possibilities to create unique elements for branded interiors, which makes it increasingly popular for retail spaces.
Spanish design studio Nagami has created a store for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf featuring transparent 3D-printed displays that recall melting glaciers, while Dutch architecture practice Studio RAP used the technology to produce a wave-like tiled facade for an Amsterdam boutique.
The photography is courtesy of External Reference.
American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has paired a towering tree with speckled burl wood panelling and vintage furniture by Carlo Scarpa at the Ulla Johnson flagship store in West Hollywood.
Kelly Wearstler has designed the interiors for Ulla Johnson’s LA flagship
The duo worked together to envisage the sandy-hued interiors, which Wearstler described as “something that really speaks to LA”.
“A priority for me and Ulla was to ensure that the showroom encapsulated the quintessence of the West Coast, firmly grounded in both the surrounding environment and local community,” the designer told Dezeen.
The “Californian idea of merging indoor and outdoor” permeates the interior
Visitors enter the store via a “secret” patio garden lined with desert trees and shrubs rather than on Beverly Boulevard, where the original entrance was.
“This Californian idea of merging indoor and outdoor is evident from the moment you approach the store,” said Wearstler, who explained that her designs tend to nod to the “natural world”.
Wearstler designed textured interiors to reflect Johnson’s collections
Inside, three interconnected, open-plan spaces on the ground floor were dressed with textured interiors that mirror Johnson’s similarly rich collections, which hang from delicate clothing rails throughout the store.
Standalone jewellery display cases by Canadian artist Jeff Martin feature in the cavernous accessories space. Clad with peeling ribbons of grooved, caramel-coloured tiles, the cases echo floor-to-ceiling speckled burl wood panels.
The mezzanine includes a double-height tree
The other living room-style area was designed as a sunroom with a pair of boxy 1970s Cornaro armchairs by modernist Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, as well as parquet flooring with Rosa Corallo stone inlay.
“Vintage pieces are infused into all of my projects and I enjoy experimenting with the dialogues created by placing these alongside contemporary commissions,” explained Wearstler.
A lumpy resin table features in an upstairs lounge
The largest of the three spaces, the mezzanine is illuminated by skylights and houses a double-height Brachychiton – a tree that also features in the designer’s own Malibu home.
A chunky timber staircase leads to the upper level, where another lounge was finished in burnt orange and cream-coloured accents including a lumpy marbelised resin coffee table by LA-based designer Ross Hansen.
“We collaborated with a variety of local artisans to imbue the spirit of southern California into every facet of the project,” said Wearstler.
Ribbed plaster walls and textured flooring line a fitting room close by, which was created to evoke a residential feeling, according to the designer.
“We wanted people to feel at home in the store so we prioritised warm and inviting elements,” she said.
Another striking display cabinet made from “wavy” burl wood evokes “a touch of 1970s California nostalgia”.
Wavy burl wood evokes “a touch of 1970s California nostalgia”
The Ulla Johnson store is also used as a community space, which hosts rotating art installations, talks with guest speakers and other events.
Wearstler recently designed an eclectic cocktail bar at the Downtown LA Proper hotel, which she previously created the wider interiors for. Her portfolio also features a 1950s beachfront cottage renovation in Malibu.
French interior design Studio FB and the co-founder of fashion brand Frame, Erik Torstensson, have designed a California-informed store for the brand in London.
The store’s concept draws from the brand’s Californian origins as well as European influences, which is reflected in the lighting, furniture and materials.
Studio FB designed a minimalist store for Frame
“The Californian universe with these modernist architectures with a free plan, skylights and the opening of spaces to the outside was our inspiration basis,” Studio FB told Dezeen.
“We imagined this new concept design layout as open as possible, which can be compared to a gallery.”
The store is arranged round a large central pillar
To create a greater connection with the street, the studio redesigned the facade by adding a curved, full-height glazed wall, which was set behind the original piers.
“We designed a long-curved glass like a contemporary insert which contrasts radically with the classic London pillars preserved,” said the studio.
The studio aimed to create a gallery-like atmosphere
Within the store, the studio aimed to mimic the atmosphere of an art gallery with a polished concrete floor serving as a base for a central pillar constructed from stained birch wood veneer.
The store’s rails were custom-designed with a distinctive hand-moulded abstract-shaped end-piece serving as the highlight
With in the fitting room, the ceiling, walls and doors were upholstered in fabric by textile company Kvadrat.
Custom-designed rails were created for the store
“The rounded central wooden element was designed as a sculptural object, which gives a residential feeling from the 50s,” the studio explained.
“The backspace invites the cabins and lounge area becomes more intimate all-in fabric and brings sophistication to the space. Pieces of furniture and artwork sublimate the atmosphere,” the studio continued.
“The general atmosphere is similar to an art gallery with raw materials such as concrete on the floor and white walls.”
The stores changing areas have fabric walls
FB Architects and Torstensson worked together to acquire artwork and collectable design pieces to reinforce the gallery atmosphere.
“It was a thorough process to ensure the most unique response possible to Frame,” said the studio.
“Erik had a precise vision of his brand, so we exchanged a lot together on many artistic fields to build the brand’s architectural DNA.”
A sculpture by Serbian visual artist Bojan Šarčević crafted from wood and limestone sits in the display window. Also in the store are two original 1950s Gio Ponti stools, crafted from wood and textiles.
The store was decorated with wall-mounted fixtures designed by French lighting designer Jean Perzel, as well as geometric fixtures created by French architect Pierre Chareau, to create a soft and gentle lighting ambience.
Artworks feature throughout the store
Torstensson used AI as a sketching tool to design custom objects for the space, such as large brutalist stone tables and chrome custom-made sculptures that were then realised by architecture studios including Bucktron Studio Sweden.
“I’ve been learning and expanding my skills with AI for the last year, it creates a superpower when it comes to speed, as it allowed me to generate the visual concept at a greater pace and scale,” said Torstensson.
“This creates exciting results and provides a new outlook on design. I simply use it to visualise my initial ideas in greater detail in order to bring my ideas to life.”
The store is Frame’s second in the UK
Other retail interiors recently featured on Dezeen include a stationery store interior made from white-oiled wood by Architecture for London and a store interior for Ms MIN in Shanghai, China, by Neri&Hu.
Cultural centre Het Nieuwe Instituut is rethinking the archetypal museum shop with a pop-up at Dutch Design Week, designed to encourage more ethical, resource-conscious consumption.
Instead of offering a straightforward exchange of wares for money, New Store 1.0 gives patrons the opportunity to trade their urine for a piece of Piss Soap and encourages them to place their phones on specially designed fixtures to provide lighting for the venue once the sun goes down.
Het Nieuwe Instituut has launched its debut pop-up shop at Dutch Design Week
Taking over Residency for the People – a hybrid restaurant and artist residency in Eindhoven – the pop-up also serves up two different versions of the same seabass dish, one made using wild locally caught fish and the other using fish that was industrially farmed and imported.
The pop-up is the first of two trial runs for the New Store, aimed at helping Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut work out how to design its own museum shop to prioritise positive social and environmental impact over mere financial gain.
Arthur Guilleminot’s Piss Soap is among the projects on offer
In collaboration with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and research consultancy The Seeking State, the second trial will take place at next year’s Milan design week, with the aim to open the first dedicated shop in the museum’s Rotterdam location in 2025.
“It all started out with the idea that we don’t have a museum shop per se,” Nieuwe Instituut’s programme manager Nadia Troeman told Dezeen. “A museum shop, as we know, has books and trinkets and gadgets. And it’s not really doing well for the planet or the environment.”
“So we were like, how can we make the act of consuming better? How can we consume differently to help not just ourselves but the environment as well?”
Visitors are invited to donate their urine via a poster in the toilet. Photo by Jennifer Hahn
The aim was to help the designers trial their ideas for how the exchange of goods could be less extractive and transactional in a real-world scenario.
This can then be placed on a shelf outside the bathroom. Photo by Tracy Metz
“The project is part of a broader institutional agenda of ours to become more of a testing ground,” explained the museum’s director Aric Chen. “It’s part of rethinking the role of cultural institutions as being places that can do more than host debates, discussions and presentations.”
“So our aim is to take some of these projects that try to think about how we can do less damage, take them out of the graduation shows, take them out of the museum galleries, take them out of the biennales and put them into the real world, with real consumers, audiences and real people to see what we can learn from it,” he continued.
Guilleminot used the opportunity to expand his ongoing Piss Soap project, with a poster in the venue’s toilet inviting visitors to donate their pee by relieving themselves into designated cups and discreetly placing them on a newly added shelf outside the bathroom window.
This can then be exchanged for a piece of soap, made using urine donated by previous participants and other waste materials from human activities such as used cooking oil.
The soap takes three months to cure and is entirely odourless, helping to break up dirt and grease thanks to the urine’s high ammonia content.
Those who are eating at the New Store can choose between two kinds of fish
The aim of the project is to find a new application for an underutilised waste material and engage people in a kind of circular urine economy.
“The idea was to revive the ancient tradition of using pee to make soap, which was done for many centuries, including in ancient Rome,” said Guilleminot.
“Could I make a modern product using this ingredient and, in the meantime, also change our feelings of disgust about our golden organic liquid?”
The shop’s interactive lighting fixtures were designed by Arnout Meijer
Those having dinner at the New Store can choose between two iterations of the same fish dish.
The first uses wild seabass that was caught locally by fishers Jan and Barbara Geertsema-Rodenburg in Lauwersoog while the other was farmed in Turkey and imported by seafood market G&B Yerseke.
Devised by Berwick, who is a design researcher and “occasional fisherwoman”, the project challenges diners to ask themselves whether they are willing to pay the higher price associated with locally caught fish in exchange for its environmental benefits.
“With the fish, they get a receipt of transparency,” Troeman added. “And one is obviously longer than the other.”
The shop is open until 29 October
Diners were also asked to provide their own illumination as the sun goes down, in a bid to make them aware of our overconsumption of energy and the adverse effects our light pollution has on the natural rhythms of other animals.
For this purpose, Meijer designed two wall-mounted fixtures inside the New Store that have no internal light source and are simply composed of discarded glass shards topped with wooden shelves made from old beams.
If they require more light, guests have to place their phone on this ledge with the flashlight on, funnelling light onto the glass shard through a narrow slit in the wood.
It takes over Eindhoven’s artists’ residency and restaurant Residency for the People
This reflects and refracts light around the space while revealing various crescent moon shapes engraved into the glass in a nod to the circadian rhythm.
“It’s really about our dependence on the constant supply of energy,” Troeman said. “Can we embrace the dark and hence be more environmentally friendly? It has benefits for everyone and everything.”
Exploring more circular forms of exchange was also on the agenda at last year’s Dutch Design Week, when designer Fides Lapidaire encouraged visitors to trade their own poo for “shit sandwiches” topped with vegetables that were fertilised with human waste.
The photography is by Jeph Francissen unless otherwise stated.
Dutch Design Week 2023 is taking over Eindhoven from 21 to 29 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
Local studio Architecture for London has designed an interior for stationery store Present & Correct in London, which features gridded joinery and draws on “wunderkammer” cabinets of curiosities.
The studio designed bespoke joinery and storage for the Present & Correct shop in Bloomsbury, central London, which sells vintage and new stationery from across the globe.
The store interior was made from white-oiled wood
Architecture for London constructed a fully demountable interior for the store, which could be moved in the future if needed.
“Rather than building the joinery around the existing building, we treated each unit as a freestanding cabinet,” Architecture for London director Ben Ridley told Dezeen.
Trays showcase old and new stationery
“Aside from the kiosk, most of the joinery was constructed offsite, so we had to consider whether the cabinets fit through a standard door width and could it easily be carried,” he continued.
“In the long term the interior needs to adapt to multiple environments; the current shop has uneven floors, to accommodate this the cabinets have adjustable feet concealed within a recessed plinth, while slender legs appear to be bearing the weight.”
Architecture for London developed a grid design for the interior
Present & Correct’s aesthetic is often built around an organised grid that holds different-shaped pieces of stationery, and the studio aimed to replicate this in the interior of the store.
“The shop joinery provides order through a grid which becomes progressively smaller as you enter the shop, providing scale to the eclectic collection of objects,” Ridley said.
The store design references the nearby British Museum
It also drew on the idea of a wunderkammer, informed by the store’s location close to the British Museum, to display the goods as “objects of desire”.
“The wunderkammer is an environment which provides order to a collection of objects through compartmentalisation which could otherwise be observed as a chaotic mess,” Ridley explained.
“So it’s about how we display hundreds of tiny objects like pens, pencils and rubbers alongside toolboxes and trays in a considered and legible way.”
The aim was for the cabinets to be durable and as long-lasting as old museum vitrines. However, budgetary constraints meant that Architecture for London couldn’t use hardwood for the joinery.
Instead, it chose to work with maple plywood and ash.
“We created the appearance and durability of solid timber by applying a rule that all edges of the maple plywood are finished with 25-millimetre British ash, which can take the knocks from a busy shop floor,” Ridley said.
The furnishings are fully demountable
“The maple plywood grain is free from imperfections and has a calm grain, so we didn’t feel the need to use additional veneers,” he added.
“Although the joinery is built with an off-the-shelf material, by concealing the raw plywood edges the interior avoids the DIY aesthetic that can come with working with plywood.”
A neutral colour palette was used throughout
It was important to Present & Correct that the interior would allow the products to shine, rather than compete with them.
This led Architecture for London to use a neutral colour palette and a grid layout that lets the materials speak for themselves, rather than more eye-catching designs.
“At the concept stage, we produced designs which incorporated more playful elements such as large columns shaped like pencils,” Ridley said.
“The shopkeeper understood their product well enough to know that there was enough humour in the stationery, so it didn’t need to be represented in the architecture.”
Other recent projects by Architecture for London include a light-filled extension to a Hackney home and an energy-saving home in north London designed for Ridley.
