Hasta La Ideas

White ceramic tiles contrast with sections of chipboard inside this Reykjavik fashion boutique by local design office HAF Studio (+ slideshow).

Icelandic designers Hafsteinn Júlíusson and Karitas Sveinsdóttir of HAF Studio fitted out the four-storey shop interior for Danish clothing label SUIT. Located on a popular shopping street, the store sells a range of mens’ and women’s clothing.

Designer Hafsteinn Júlíusson said the glossy white tiles were chosen to create a contrast with the oriented strand board – a kind of engineered wood that was used for walls and joinery throughout the boutique.

“We wanted to add a bit of an unexpected twist,” Júlíusson told Dezeen. “We think these tiles enhance the refined roughness that we were aiming for.”

The tiles create geometric grids across parts of the wooden walls, but also extend down to cover sections of the concrete floor.

“More known for serving slaughterhouses or swimming pools, the tiles give a good contrast against the warm wood and the raw concrete,” added Júlíusson.

On the ground floor, strips of fluorescent lighting spell out the word ‘suit’, next to a tiled serving counter with low-hanging black pendant lamps, also designed by the studio.

Shelving units are mounted to the walls to display folded clothes, while other garments are piled up on benches or hung from orange clothing racks.

Cheeky phrases are printed onto the walls of the shop to help visitors find their way around – the words “Do you fit in?” highlight the entrance to the fitting rooms.

Photography is by Gunnar Sverrisson.

Here’s a short description from HAF Studio:

SUIT

The clothing brand SUIT opened downtown Reykjavík recently. The store was designed by HAF Studio which is an Icelandic interdisciplinary design studio run by designers Karitas Sveinsdóttir and Hafsteinn Júlíusson.

The design intention behind the new store was to tie the brand’s raw and rough character together with clever and elaborate detailing. With this in mind, the HAF team created a space that offers a unique customer experience beyond that of the conventional clothing store environment.

The raw concrete floors and walls meet a warm OSB wood cladding where white glossy ceramic tiles give the store a refined finish. Finally orange and black fluorescent details create contrasts and highlights together with crisp lighting.

Client: GK Clothing
Collaborators: Ása Ninna Pétursdóttir & Guðmundur Hallgrímsson
Year: 2013

The post Reykjavik boutique by HAF Studio
mixes chipboard with ceramic tiles appeared first on Dezeen.

Chunky chipboard surfaces have been sanded and stained to look like marble at this Aesop skincare shop in Tokyo by Japanese studio Torafu Architects (+ slideshow).

A muted brown stain coats the wooden walls and countertops and bottles sit within recessed shelves and openings.

Two island counters accomodate hidden drawers and cupboards, sinks and a cash register.

Other Aesop stores we’ve published include a shop filled with translucent boxes on stilts and a kiosk made from newspapers.

See all our stories about Aesop »

See all our stories about Torafu Architects »

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here’s some more information from Torafu Architects:

Aesop Shin-Marunouchi – Torafu Architects

For Aesop, an Australian skincare brand celebrating its 25th year anniversary this year, we proposed an interior fit-out located in the Shin-Marunouchi Building. Concurrent to this, we also designed Aesop Yokohama Bay Quarter, which opened at the same time.

Aesop’s skincare products emphasise on maintenance to restore the skin’s natural health, and in a similar way we had chosen a key material that reflects this idea for the two stores. OSB (Oriented Strand Board) is a wood which has characteristic textures and patterns, and of which are accentuated are accentuated once sanded and stained in different ways. While associated as a rough material typically used in construction, as it is stained the wood adopts a stone-like appearance. The result is a distinct materiality which be felt throughout the store space.

At Aesop Shin-Marunouchi, the OSB has been stained with a brown colour to distinguish the store with its neighbours within the bright surrounding environment. The central band of display seen stretched across the back wall binds the store space to a single point of focus, naturally drawing customers towards the products.

In the foreground of the shops are stand-alone functional counters that allow the corner shop space to be freely circulated. Small stores require an efficient use of space, so the activities essential to the shop’s operation have been carefully considered and housed into the ‘floating’ boxes to assist in operational processes. We thought about how the volumes of these counters can be opened at various parts when required, and eventually closed back into a simple box.

Even located within a large commercial building, we have focused on how we can clearly reflect Aesop’s brand image into these stores.

Principle use: shop
Production: Ishimaru
Credit: Graphic design: Aesop
Building site: Shin-Marunouchi Building, Marunouchi, Tokyo Total floor area: 22.53m2
Design period: 2012.02-2012.06
Construction period: 2012.06

The post Aesop Shin-Marunouchi
by Torafu Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The two rehearsal rooms of this Brazilian music school are covered with chalkboards on the outside and oriented strand board on the inside.

Designed by architects 0E1, the Eclética Centro De Música centres around an informal foyer where students and teachers are able to make notes on the walls.

This space separates the two practice rooms and leads into a recital room beyond.

OSB was also used to make stools and tables for every room plus some bookshelves slotted into one corner.

You can see more stories about music-related design on Dezeen here.

Photography is by Marcelo Donadussi.

Here’s some more information from 0E1:

The design for this music school is based upon the creation of two hermetic chambers to house rehearsals inside a large space in a historic building located in Nova Prata, Brasil. The configuration of such boxes turns the residual space into two ambients that, even though are continuous, configure different spaces for different activities.

The proposal aims to enrich the user’s experience while using the as little compositive elements as possible.

When entering the school, one arrives at a foyer located between two chambers, where the administration and reception are; going further inside the school, a new space emerges, where students can practice before and after class, interacting and sharing knowledge.

The interior of the chambers was designed in order to optimize the acoustics and the comfort of the users. The lighting solution maintains the 3,4-meter-high ceiling and creates a lower light surface, increasing the comfort without losing the acoustic properties of the original building.

A series of furniture were designed to meet the overall resource economy of the project. The material used in the furnishing is the same OSB that covers the interior of the chambers, assuring unity to the design. The different models satisfy the different users’ needs, from instrument practice to administrative functions.

The students and tutors of a design and build workshop in Istanbul have constructed a seaside temple from oriented strand board.

Irish architecture graduates Kieran Donnellan, Darragh Breathnach and Paul O Brien led the Chapel project as part of MEDS 2011, an annual event where European students collaborate on the design and fabrication of pavilions.

The timber temple was designed around the theme Bridging Cultures and can be used by visitors of any religion as a space for repose.

Located on a rock outcrop, the rectangular structure is raised above the ground on timber feet and features a portico entrance.

Wooden planks create screens around the base of the walls and across the ceiling, allowing stripes of sunlight to permeate an interior that faces the ocean.

A recess in the floor provides a place to sit.

Graduate Darragh Breathnach is also a member of VAV Architects, who recently created a concealed passageway behind a secret mirror – see our earlier story here.

See also: more stories about projects constructed from oriented strand boards here.

Photography is by Kieran Donnellan.

Here are some more details from Donnellan:

Chapel

The name of the Chapel project is inspired by its origins in religious typologies, but the intention was simply to create a space that offers repose. The concept for the pavilion involved the exploration of spatial concepts relating to religious typologies from the Western and Eastern cultures that have shaped Istanbul. This was in response to the event theme of ‘Bridging Cultures’.

The pavilion occupies its site like a Greek temple, boldly situated on a prominent rock outcrop that allows it to be seen for miles along the local shoreline. Particular natural characteristics of the site, such as small cliffs and areas of thick wild grass, are used to best advantage in leading visitors on a journey around the pavilion, before gaining access.

Upon reaching the entrance, the chapels’ rectangular form ceases to be the regular datum highlighting the irregularity of the surrounding landscape, and instead folds in upon itself to create an inviting portico.

The interior leaves Greek Classicism behind in favor of the intimacy of the Turkish Mosque typology. Just like the low horizontal datum, and soft ornate praying carpets of the Blue Mosque, the lower realm of the Chapel invites visitors to sit and relax, rewarding them with a stunning sea-view.

Beams of sunlight from a roof light bathe the visitor as they move to take their seat. At this point one becomes aware of the meaning of the ring of baffles, as the slight views through them mimic that of looking through the wild grass beyond.

See also:

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Shadowboxing exhibition by Slowscape Collective	Duplex House in Tokito by Hidehiro Fukuda Architects	Covington Farmers Market by design/buildLAB

The interior of this cycling shop in Athens by React Architects of Greece is clad in bands of oriented strand board and artificial turf.

The shop displays bicycles in four distinct areas downstairs with clothing and accessories on an upper mezzanine.

More about cycling on Dezeen »

More retail design on Dezeen  »

Here are some more details from the architects:

Cyclist shop in Athens

Opposite from a central Metro station of Athens we designed and built the second store of the bicycle company cyclist.gr . The shop consists of a ground floor area of 400 m2 and a mezzanine of 150 m2.

The design concept introduces the user in a way of life that is influenced and coexists with the bicycle.

The ground floor contains the main exhibition space with four big thematic categories. City bicycles, Mountain bicycles, race bicycles and finally kids bicycles.

In the vertical surfaces bicycle parts are displayed. In the same level we have placed the bicycle repair shop as well as the space of the bicycle community (forum). The mezzanine serves the clothing and footwear department.

The particular shop is not faced only as bicycle shop but it incorporates in the planning elements, conditions and spaces that a biker experiences:

• Countryside and City
• Nature drive and city streets
• Amusement and Sports
• Urban Way and Mountainous Ascent
• Tool of Transportation and Travelling Medium
• Athlete and Amateur

The objective was the unification of space that was found in different levels. A “ribbon” that unfolds starting from the shop’s entry in a depth of 40 m. varying in thicknesses and heights, constitutes the main design tool. It creates space of entry, display area in the shop’s façade and in the interior, surfaces of suspension of products. In the flooring it signals the course in the whole extent of the shop and finally leads to the mezzanine.

Basic materials of covering and creating of surfaces for display are: OSB “oriented strand board”, artificial turf, pebbles.

The above materials create space of display, passage, suspension of pictures, display of products etc. They are placed in the floor in the walls and finally in the roof.

The combination of surfaces from different materials that are layered one on top of the other, in the whole extent of the shop creates an intense depth of field that invites the visitor.

“Nature” as it is expressed via the materials makes apparent her presence in the space. The creation of space through blurring the limits between artificial and natural constituted the basic idea of design.

Architectural Study: React Architects

Deliyianni Natasha – Spiridonos Yiorgos
Collaborating Architect: Anastasiadou Evi Architect
Lighting study: Fotismos edu
Construction Supervision: React Architects
Store Area: 550,00 m2
Company : cyclist.gr
Location : Athens , Holargos

See also:

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Pave by Joan Sandoval	Tokyo Bike store by Emulsion	Mission Bicycle Store by Grayscaled Design