Hasta La Ideas

The new Paris store for fashion designer Stella Cadente is a tunnel lined in gold.

Designed by French architects Atelier du Pont, the cylindrical shop showcases clothing and accessories within the rectangular recesses of its curved walls.

Gold leaf covers almost every interior surface, including the mannequins.

The theme continues on the exterior, where a glazed facade is surrounded by a gilt frame.

We’ve noticed an increase in golden buildings in recent months and have recently featured both a library and a museum clad in golden metal. See these projects and more here.

Photography is by Sergio Grazia.

The text below is from Atelier du Pont:

Stella Cadente’s Paris boutique

Stella Cadente + Atelier du Pont = fabulous stories

The story of Stella Cadente and Atelier du Pont goes back a long way. It’s a story of a friendship between two women – Stella Cadente, a designer, and Anne-Cécile Comar, an architect – and, of course, of shared adventures, with their complementary professions and points of view.

For a previous concept store in Dubai, Atelier du Pont came up with a design midway between an ice palace and a crystal maze for Stella Cadente. It espoused the brand’s style based on light, crystal, magic and transparent dress. Thousands of stalactites changed colour, creating an impression that the store had come alive.

Now they have teamed up again in 2012 under the skies of Paris. Clothed in glass from top to toe, the boutique stands out from the sober lines of the Boulevard Beaumarchais due to its gilded metal frontage. This new Parisian space breaks with the conventions of usual stores. Inside it is cylindrical, broken into two ellipses. The shop window display stand is out: the clothes are laid out on a large draper’s table, and the soft, practical design makes a mockery of the XXS-sized Parisian boutique. The final radical change is in colour, as the interior is entirely covered in gold leaf.

Architect: Atelier du Pont (Anne-Cécile Comar, Philippe Croisier, Stéphane Pertusier)
Client: Stella Cadente
Location: 102 boulevard Beaumarchais Paris 11th – France
Completion: March 2012

Designed in Hackney: today’s featured designers from the London borough of Hackney are graphic designers Multistorey, who created the geometric interiors and branding for accessories boutique Darkroom.

Completed back in 2009, the store features a hand-painted tile floor and cone-shaped pendant lamps with crisp black silhouettes.

Some products are displayed on top of brightly painted stands, while others are draped over a green ladder propped up against a wall.

Multistorey is the creative partnership of Harry Woodrow and Rhonda Drakeford, who also happens to be the co-director of Darkroom, and their offices are located in creative hub Shacklewell Studios on Shacklewell Lane in Dalston. See another project by the pair here.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Our interview with the owner of Prague’s newest experimental retail and experiential gallery space

by Perrin Drumm

Yasmin Keshmiri Hejduk opened Gallery by Minty Concept Club in Prague less than a year ago and already it’s become the city’s go-to destination as an experiential retail and gallery. “Gallery is a space where people meet, browse through new magazines and enjoy a more social setting to find goodies within the heart of Prague,” Hejduk says. “Gallery combines the cool aesthetic of Scandinavian design with friendly charm, creating a modern vibe and opportunity to discover a new world.” She is kept busy moving a constant rotation of clothes and accessories through the front of the shop while planning the next big pop-up event in the back, but after a well-earned vacation she sat down to tell us the story behind Minty.

You opened Minty in September, 2011. What did you do before that? What led you to create an art/retail space?

I met my husband in 2002 in Prague when I came over to shoot a commercial. Having worked in the film industry for years in London and then running a Production Company in Prague gave me a real taste for creative activities. Though I’m a producer, I still felt that it was a creative job—you certainly have to be creative with money!

After having my two sons, I wanted to branch out in a different way and decided to set up Minty Concept Club as a creative studio/experiential agency. Minty became big in Prague due to the number of pop-up projects we executed and we soon got a reputation as a company that brings a real creative edge to commercial projects. It was a natural progression to find a space that can give us the opportunity to continue.

What were your goals for Gallery when you first started out? What kind of role did you see yourself playing in the community?

The goal of Gallery was to bring lifestyle and trend-inspired projects to Prague while collaborating with young designers and artists. We really try to promote the people we have collaborated with. For example, we worked with Veronika Jirouskova on our set direction, Lenka Mikova, who designed the Gallery furniture and Veronika Vlkova for graphics and the murals on the walls. Hopefully, through these creative yet commercial projects, they can build a good portfolio for the future and we are proud to be part of that success.

Can you tell me a bit more about how Minty splits its functions as both a gallery and a retail space? Is it common for people to visit and just look at the items for sale like objects of art, or to sit in a chair and read one of the magazines without browsing the clothes or other items for sale?

Absolutely. Gallery is all about creating an atmosphere within which we sell what we love, and the space almost acts as a mood board for Minty’s creative activities. The layout is perfect for what we’re about. The front is a more commercial shop with jewelry, one-off designer collections, magazines and emotive objects. The middle is a reading room and the back is an empty white space for exhibitions and instillations. I think the reason we’re receiving such positive feedback is because we’re more than a shop or a gallery. Gallery is based in Prague, but I think a space like this sits very well in any cosmopolitan city that has a thirst for beauty and inspiration.

How does Minty’s neighborly vibe shape the way it functions in the community?

We are just off of Old Town Square and Parizska, and as much as we welcome passers-by we do not rely on the tourist trade. There’s always something happening and Gallery is becoming a sort of creative hang out. This is very important to the function of Gallery as our visitors are contemporary, fashion conscious and open minded individuals who add a very unique vibe to the neighborhood.

Does the space become a more “normal” storefront in between pop-up exhibitions, or is it always in a state of constant exhibition, moving straight from one show to the next?

The space changes all the time. It all depends on the timing of our own projects, collaborations or exhibitions, which can last a few days to a month. We try to keep things different and fresh from merchandising and swapping the space around. The spaces have had dramatic changes from the Rocka Billy Tattoo Parlour for Zoe and Morgan, to a Black Forest designed by Igor Hosnedl. Even in between projects there’s something new to see, a new brand we’re launching or new collection arrivals. Some people even come in just to hear what music we are playing!

Can you talk a bit about your current exhibition, “Melt Your Cold Cold Heart?”

“Melt Your Cold Cold Heart” was a collaboration with design duo Rozbijim Se and Photographer Ladislav Babusak. We produced 14 limited edition Valentine’s chocolate photo packaged keepsakes. Within the project we created a glass instillation which had tasting stations with crystal water glasses. And finally in the back we created a black box with only a photograph lit, where the visitors sampled the chocolate in a more intense setting. It was a very fragile and personal experience that really enhanced the chocolate’s unique taste and the individual’s bond to the setting.

What we can expect to see from you in the coming months?

We have lots of lovely exhibitions planned. We’re working with one of our favorite photographers, Bet Orten, and the indie music band, Please the Trees. Gallery has many possibilities. We love to continue to work with chocolate and branch out into coffee. I would like to say there is a really great coffee shop in the centre of Prague but sadly so far there’s not. There are many lovely spaces like Sucr Kava Limonada or Cafe Louvre, but the coffee quality is falling behind other cities, so you can imagine what’s next on Minty’s agenda!

Slideshow: Australian practice March Studio conceived this Melbourne bakery as an oversized breadbasket.

The undulating wooden slats that cover the rear wall and ceiling of the shop function as shelves for storing and displaying breads of different shapes and sizes.

A wooden chopping board spans the length of the bakery to create a countertop with integrated pockets for scales, knives, crumb-catchers and checkouts.

March Studio were also the designers for a series of unusual shops for skincare brand Aesop – see them here.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

Here’s the story of the project from March Studio:

Baker D. Chirico

“Just bread”, he said, and passed us a loaf.

“Just bread?”, we said, and thought of containers for bread. Baskets, cooling racks, peels. A basket the size of a shop. A basket that was also a rack. A single gesture.

A Wall Of Bread.

Bread is a simple product, of few ingredients, traditionally displayed and sold simply.
The art of a baker such as D. Chirico is to perfect a simple process and do it like few others. The results are evident in their reputation.

At the Carlton edition of Baker D. Chirico, March Studio have taken inspiration from this example, crafting an interior with a simple purpose: to cool the bread fresh out of the oven, to display it naked of packaging and ready to be portioned and sold.

An undulation of CNC routed plywood forms wall and ceiling. Subtractions from the wall provide display areas for bread; the varying depths of the shelves and heights of the subtractions meticulously arranged to accommodate long baguettes, large round pagnotta, ficelle loaves and other creations. The variety and expanse of the wall gives freedom to arrange and alter the display according to mood or season.

“And I’ll sell it by the kilo”, he said, and showed us a knife.

“By the kilo?”, we said (we didn’t always repeat what he’d said as a question) and thought of chopping boards. A chopping board the size of a counter.

Standing in firm counterpoint to the wave of the bread wall, the central counter is conceived of as a giant chopping board, intended to wear and patina gracefully with age and use. Scales, crumb trays, knife holders and POS terminals each have a place on this working bench, all subsumed into the simple sales concept – chop loaf, wrap and sell.

“And maybe some nougat”, he said. “Nah, just bread”, we said.

French architects Agence Search have won a competition to design a Paris shopping mall with proposals involving giant elliptical lattices.

The five-storey-high, egg-shaped structures will define two atriums located at opposite ends of the shopping centre.

Escalators and footbridges will pierce holes through the suspended structures.

The architects drew inspiration for the project from the conceptual cenotaph that architect Étienne-Louis Boullée designed for scientist Isaac Newton over 200 years ago.

Another shopping centre we’ve featured in recent months features a rippled stone facade – see it here.

Here’s some more text from Agence Search:

Agence Search Win the restricted competition for the interior design of the future New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall

In today’s increasingly competitive environment, the architecture of shopping malls has come to play a fundamental role in their commercial success. Architecture can distinguish the shopping environment to create a sense of specificity, of differentiation. Space can become a brand. The New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall program set the stakes to develop an existing space by transforming two atriums into a site with “Wow Effect.”

Atrium entrance sequence

The entrance sequence is spectacular. The visitor is taken in by the volume, by a spatial configuration that is at once singular and majestic. The lattice work structure that inhabits the central volume is visible from the building’s façade. It attracts the shopper, and once inside draws his or her eyes up to the light and shops above, and down to the event space below. The visitor’s first perception goes beyond the scale of the building, to encompass its referential universe, its status, and its identity.

Lattice

The lattice work structure materializes an envelope that defines the central space, and transforms it into an inhabited volume. It enables the interior design to refrain from modifying the existing architecture, while all the while entering into a dialogue with it on a large scale. The wooden lattice invokes warmth, sobriety and elegance.

E-commerce

The interiors project for the New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall takes into account the transformations affecting our contemporary shopping experience. Facing the development of e-commerce, the shopping mall must affirm its singularity and specificity to maintain and improve its dynamic status. According to the “fun shopping” movement, we know that stores today must seduce buyers by transforming their commercial space into zones of conviviality and entertainment. The addition of footbridges that pierce the lattice structure and span the atrium creates novel spaces where multimedia and other recreational programs can develop.

« Wow Effect »

The two atriums of the Beaugrennelle shopping mall create a “Wow Effect.” In keeping with the client’s desires, they constitute an extraordinary spatial experience. Surprised and seduced by these singular architectural objects, the visitor is transported, becoming one with the volume.