Hasta La Ideas

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.

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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

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

Taiwan designers Paradox Studio created a wall of undulating wooden blocks to display products at this shop in Taipei.

Called OPUS, the shop specialised in hooks for handbags and these are balanced on the protruding wooden batons.

Yellow bobins mounted on one wall represent the company’s six distribution cities, while yellow shapes painted on the side walls are meant to create an illusion of depth.

A clock on the end wall uses samples of the products in place of numbers.

Photographs are by Benjamin Chou.

Here are some more details from the designers:

The Story of OPUS: The world’s one and only purse hanger specialty shop by Paradox Studio

OPUS is a brand specializing in purse hangers, which can be placed securely on the edge of the table to hang your purse, hence free up space at the table and on the seats, and free up your hands for more activities. OPUS Taipei is the first shop for the brand and was designed to be a multi-purpose space that can be used for meetings, product launches as well as a retail store.

OPUS Taipei is located in the city’s fashion district. The previous use for this location was a garage and the space was converted into a small storefront during the economic recession.

The store is merely 2.3 meters wide and 4.5 meters long, which is about 10.5 square meters and is a very petite space. To overcome the size limitation of the store, we designed a perspective illusion by painting yellow color blocks (using OPUS’ signature color) on white walls to create the impression of a deeper and wider space. The rhythmic yellow blocks run along the two opposite walls of the store and converged into a horizontal line on the back wall which is highlighted with a clock custom-designed by us.

The unconventional clock is shaped like the rising sun using lines formed by OPUS purse hangers instead of numbers to indicate hours on the clock face. We used purse hangers of 4 different colors from OPUS’ classic Swarovski collection to form “zones” on the clock face, with each zone encompassing 3 hours.

The four colors, blue, purple, pink, and green are arranged from cold to warm to reflect the lighting changes of the day. The clock has become a conversation piece and the star of the store and has generated lots of comments and interest.

To create a clean footprint area and minimize the feeling of clutter, we keep all the display function to the walls. Timbers of 4 different lengths line the two display walls to create an up–and–down visual effect and form an exhibition canvas to present the store’s collection.

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Each piece of timber is designed to serve as a showcase for a single purse hanger and is thus cut and sized precisely to be just slightly bigger than the footprint of a purse hanger, so one purse hanger could be placed on top of each piece of timber and can be easily reached by a customer.

The store is quite unique in that it carries only one product — the purse hangers, which come in many different colors and designs and are decorated with materials ranging from wood and leather to semi-precious stones and sparkling crystals – so we felt it was important that the store displays its complete collection of products and allows the customers to see, touch, and feel each purse hanger.

These individual display stands enable such a three-dimensional product display that fully utilizes the limited amount of space and at the same time allows visitors to experience the full range of OPUS products.

The two display walls each has a theme and are meant to serve different functions at the opposite sides of the store. When customers enter the store, the first wall they see on the right is the “Nature Wall” with its dramatic waves (created by the wood display stands) which invoke images of a natural landscape. This wall features the brand’s classic as well as seasonal collections

On the left side of the store, the “Urban Wall” has fewer timber stands and these are arranged less dramatically than its counterpart but are deliberately arranged to resemble a city skyline.

Six yellow bobbins are positioned on the upper portion of wall to indicate the cities that make up OPUS’ distribution network. This wall features the limited-edition products, and high stools are placed along this wall so it resembles a bar area where OPUS proprietors can use it as a meeting space with its vendors and distributors.

Project Facts:
Designer: Chris Chen, Director of Paradox Studio
Project name and location: The OPUS Shop. No. 197-1, Dan-An Rd. Taipei City, Taiwan.
Client：OPUS International
Character of space: Concept store for a purse hanger specialty retailer.
Floor area: 10.5 m2
Materials: Wood, glass

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Albert Reichmuth Wine Store by OOS	Aesop Saint-Honoré by March Studio	Smithfield menswear by Burnt Toast

London studio 42 architects have created an installation of spiralling black tubes for UK fashion retailer Topshop.

The temporary installation in London, which was conceived and built in three weeks, was created to display garments from Topshop’s autumn/winter 2011 collection to the press.

Elsewhere white blocks provide seating and display shoes and accessories.

Photography is by 42 Architects.

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The following information is from the architects:

Twister – Topshop Press Day Installation, London

4 2  a r c h i t e c t s

London 2010

Johan Berglund of London-based 42 architects have designed a spatial installation for Topshop’s AW 11 press event in London, UK, working to an very tight timeframe of only three weeks from concept to completion.

Twister proposes a spatial configuration built of swirls, swooshes, vortexes and eddys – manifested as a system of hand formed black PVC coated tubes onto which garments can be hung. Visitors are invited to follow the structure as it winds through the room, while encountering concentrations of displayed garments along the way. The black tube also acts to bind the various collections together into one thematic whole. Around the structure sits a second layer of smaller white structures; benches and tables that hold shoes, accessories and makeup displays, as well as acting as seats for visitors.

Twister continues themes currently being in our studio. We take a great interest in the relationship between the body and space, with architecture acting as a mediator that can provoke and promote very specific types of uses and movement patterns.

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Sticks by Emmanuelle Moureaux	Entrance by Square One	24 Issey Miyake concept shop by Nendo

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has added stacked layers of white marble to create a podium in this Romanesque church in France.

The marble strata step up and down, with a still pool of clear water created in one sunken area.

The alter and ambo are made from a coloured mineral material, similar to the existing interior of the church.

Photography is by Felipe Ribon.

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Here are some more details about the project:

St Hilaire church in Melle by Mathieu Lehanneur

Mathieu Lehanneur has converted the choir at St Hilaire church in Melle in the Deux-Sèvres department (France). The designer has enhanced the Romanesque building with a very mineral look, a surge of white marble that he imagines “prior to the construction of the church. A mineral presence justifying that the church was built there. Reflecting the extreme care paid to the telluric energy of stones and territories in the building of Romanesque churches, this place of worship would have been built on this specific area for the discernable energy that emanates from it.”

An architectural gesture equally paradoxical and strangely distinguishable which will undoubtedly mark an important milestone in the development of religious works. The white marble creates a homogenous mineral block formed from successive strata which seem to recall the sedimentary formation of the basement. The liturgical furniture (altar and ambo) is made from coloured alabaster, close to the colour of the original stone of the church. The result is a visual impact, one of Lehanneur’s trade secrets, this time using the purity of the geological chaos to highlight the perfection of the Romanesque geometry.

The complicity between the church and this mineral mass is completed by the baptistery hollowed out from the same material. The water that it holds appears to be from the river which runs below the church: the ultimate linking of the building with its environment.

A scenario inspired by the topology of the place, just like a ‘box’ sunk into the sand, the church in fact gives the impression of nestling in the landscape. It’s not just a building placed on the ground but part of the region and reveals itself to visitors as they descend. The main idea of the project was then to accentuate this sensation of progressive discovery and taking root in the land, “I imagine that when this ‘box’ was sunk into the ground as if pushed by an invisible, maybe divine hand, it revealed the geology of it, the visible aspect of a mineral and massive form: a revelation which seems anterior, and not posterior, to the construction of the church.”

This play between anterior or posterior construction allows a relief to be produced which creates a natural hierarchy between the celebrant and the congregation. It simply uses then the site’s topology in order for a better comprehension. An organic architecture which is not though a break with with the liturgical codes and conceals symbolic invariants like the eight sided baptistery or the altar built at the junction of the transept.

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The JWT Agency by Mathieu Lehanneur	Studio 13/16 by Mathieu Lehanneur	L’Atelier des Enfants by Mathieu Lehanneur

Designer Dominic Wilcox has taken an abandoned office in a London building being demolished this week and painted the entire contents white.

Located in the only room in the building not emptied, the contents of Waiting Room are left exactly as they where when in use, only without colour.

The St Phillips Building, originally constructed as an infirmary, is being demolished to allow construction to start on a new student union for the London School of Economics.

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Dominic Wilcox was invited to take part in a quickly organised exhibition to celebrate the life of London’s St Philips Building that is signed off for demolition today. The building started life as a workhouse infirmary for the poor in 1903 and went on to be used as a hospital for women before being bought by the London School of Economics. It is to be demolished to make way for a new student union at LSE.

“I was shown around the building, all rooms were empty apart from one remaining locked office that was abandoned with all it’s contents intact. I thought that it was as if the room was waiting to die and I wanted to ease its transition from this world.

My thought for the office was to leave it intact but to remove the colour from every aspect in the room (via white paint) thereby taking away a layer of reality and connection to our world as it moves closer to its imminent death.” Dominic Wilcox

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The Pond by Raw Edges	Cardboard office by Paul Coudamy	Back Side Flip 360° by O-S Architectes