Hasta La Ideas

A hand-painted tile mural covers the front of this Miami Design District boutique designed by New York studio Sugarhouse Design and Architecture for fashion brand Cult Gaia.

Sugarhouse Design and Architecture designers Jess and Jonathan Nahon followed up their New York City store for Cult Gaia founder Jasmin Larian Hekmat with a flagship in Miami intended to align with the brand and the location.

The duo “sought inspiration from temple architecture, Larian Hekmat’s Persian heritage and iconic historical archetypes” for the 1,502-square-foot (140-square-metre) retail space, and also modelled the building on local casitas.

To cover the gabled front facade, Design and Architecture commissioned artist Michael Chandler to create a mural using ceramic tiles.

The resulting 1,800-piece Tree of Life mural is based on French post-impressionist artist Henri Rousseau’s painting The Dream.

“The hand-painted ceramic mural depicts a silhouetted tree with its branches extending across the storefront, featuring stylised vegetation, birds and flower-crowned nymphs,” said Sugarhouse Design and Architecture.

Painted in blue “lapis lazuli” hues, similar to those that decorate Persian mosques, the artwork references everything from Indian textiles to botanical illustrations.

A trio of arched openings in the facade contain windows and a larger, recessed entryway that holds wood-framed glass doors and aligns with the store’s central axis.

The first in a series of interiors spaces is an open room decorated in creamy Bianco Avorio limestone and Bianco Santa Caterina travertine.

Unlacquered brass rods, designed to mimic Cult Gaia’s jewellery, drop from behind ceiling coves to display garments and custom amorphous mirrors by New Vernacular Studio hang on the walls.

On both sides of the central axis, sandstone blocks are stacked into vertical checkerboard grids that allows accessories to be displayed in the gaps.

These partitions enclose the fitting rooms, which can be illuminated from within so that light glows through a translucent membrane and the grid holes.

“Designed to reference rock-cut cave temples, the structures provide privacy while also allowing merchandise to be displayed within their illuminated niches,” said the team.

A second space identical to the first is reached past the threshold created by the fitting rooms, and a bar is hidden beyond a brass door on the far wall.

Over each of the two main rooms presides a domed ceiling and a seven-foot-wide oculus, based on the roof of the Pantheon in Rome.

Below the first is a 12-foot-tall concrete sculpture of the Greek goddess Gaia – after whom the brand is named – by Larian Hekmat’s mother, artist Angela Larian.

“An elongated, Giacometti-like female nude that soars toward the heavens, the work is a foil to the nymphs from the facade and her angularity is intentional: like the brand, this is a fully composed, confident, and in control Gaia,” said the team.

In the second room, a large banyan tree reminiscent of the facade decoration is planted within a serpentine sofa designed by Brandi Howe.

“Like the sacred tree from Buddhism, it invites visitors to sit and achieve their own awakening within this temple of fashion,” the team added.

Miami Design District is home to a host of luxury fashion brands, which have each taken a unique approach to designing their stores both inside and out.

Brazilian brand PatBo recently opened a flagship in the neighbourhood with a pink slatted facade by BoND, while Kengo Kuma and Associates is set to create a sculptural block of buildings nearby that will also serve as retail locations.

The photography is by Kris Tamburello.

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