The Milan workplace of David Chipperfield Architects designed a minimalist boutique for Washington DC-based trend model Akris, with pleated partitions and shows suspended from skinny wires.
The shop within the US capital is the primary execution of a brand new retail idea created for Akris, a household trend home based in Switzerland in 1922.
Brothers Albert and Peter Kriemler, grandsons of founder Alice Kriemler-Schoch, collaborated with David Chipperfield Architects Milan (DCA Milano) on the idea that debuted in DC and has since been utilized to Tokyo.
“DCA Milano’s design intent for the undertaking was to boost the materiality and superb craftsmanship of the Akris collections by way of a stable, three-dimensional structure paired with a lightweight show system, defining an area the place fastidiously chosen supplies take middle stage ”, mentioned the design crew. .
Positioned downtown, a number of blocks from the White Home, the boutique is lined with white-painted maple panels organized to seem like folds of cloth.
These panels cowl three partitions and in addition cowl the ceiling, giving the impression of a room inside a room.
Grey limestone flooring, giant cylindrical columns and different surfaces proceed the impartial shade palette, offering a backdrop for the model’s vivid clothes and accessories.
Cabinets, garments rails and mirrors are suspended by skinny cables linked to the ceiling or excessive up on wall panels.
Influenced by the work of Italian artist Bruno Munari, stretched threads type refined traces throughout pleated panels.
“The design references Bruno Munari’s stretching spatial buildings, whose elementary nature lies within the distinction between two opposing forces: rigidity and compression,” mentioned DCA Milan.
To divide the area, giant sheets of stainless-steel mesh hold from the ceiling. Anodized aluminum counters create a circulate of motion across the retailer.
Ivory horsehair – a fabric lengthy related to Akris – is used on the partitions and ceiling of the becoming rooms together with grey felt furnishings, whereas wool carpet covers the ground.
Spotlights put in on the ceiling rails are directed to particular merchandise, and different sorts of lighting are hidden within the cabinets.
General, the inside is designed to be refined and restrained to maintain the deal with the gadgets on the market.
British architect David Chipperfield based his eponymous agency in 1984 and have become finest identified for cultural venues such because the Neues Museum in Berlin and the Jumex Museum in Mexico Metropolis.
However the studio, which has places of work in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai, additionally has earlier expertise in luxurious retail, with initiatives together with the New York headquarters for watch model Rolex and a minimalist boutique in Montreal for trend model Ssense .
The photograph is by Alberto Parise.
The publish David Chipperfield Architects designs minimal Akris boutique in Washington DC appeared first on Dezeen.
