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New York and Beijing designers Elevation Workshop have completed the interior of a clothing store in Beijing, China.
The interior contains raised platforms arranged in an L-shape with dark grey walkways cutting between them.
The designers wanted this division of space to simultaneously evoke a walk-in cupboard, catwalk and stage.
Two red rails span three walls of the shop.
Photographs courtesy of Elevation Workshop and JR & Others.
Here’s some more information from Elevation Workshop:
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This project is a show room and prototype store for a new women’s clothing brand. It is located within the brand’s design studio and clothing factory, situated close to the entryway and formerly used as a fabrication studio.
The design goal was to respond to the client’s desire to serve the stylish, confident and still feminine career women.
Within the pre-existing conditions, including limited ceiling height and openings, the show room is to focus on the transformation and transition of space through subtle and responsive material changes.
The “L-Container” functions dually as a spacial volume and a separation element.
The floor inside was lifted to represent a stage. The “L-Container” introduces a contoured alleyway to recall the sensation of a private walk-in-closet at home, which is the real stage for actual people.
A convertible dressing room at the end of its turn is to place real women at the center of the deepened “display window” which projects directly towards the entryway and traverses through the whole store.
Gray tiles pave the catwalks penetrating the “L-container,” weaving between the public and private space. This composition of the store’s circulation creates the visual and physical connections between all areas essential in a retail establishment.
The two-way hanger system creates a vivid red belt, continually lacing through lighted wall niches around the room. CNC technology was used to pre-fabricate materials such as the flooring and resin panels, while thousands of beads were arrayed by hand to create a crystal curtain with the store logo patterned within.
Elevation Workshop (ELEV) is an interdisciplinary Architecture and Design Firm. Positioned at the crossroads of art and architecture, the interests range from urban/rural planning and architectural design to interior, furniture and product design. Na Wei and Christopher Mahoney, the founding partners come from different backgrounds and foundations to create an interactive environment with a broad perspective.
ELEV (Elevation Workshop) New Project:
Women’s Clothing Store Design
www.elevationworkshop.com
Location: DongFeng Art District, Beijing, China
Floor area: 78 sq meters
Chief designer: Na Wei
Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove has created a watch for Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake.
Called Hu (short for ‘human’), the watch casing wraps around the wearer’s wrist and has a silicon strap in grey, white or black. Its convex watch face is angled 25 degrees to the right.
Here’s some text from Lovegrove:
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New watch series created by the collaboration between ISSEY MIYAKE and Ross Lovegrove
The ISSEY MIYAKE WATCH Project which started in 2001 has invited a British industrial designer, Ross Lovegrove to create its new watch series. The concept of the new watch is “Human”. Made of titanium which is gentle to the skin and non-allergic, the extended case naturally wraps the wrist bone. By tilting the face 25 degrees to the right from the 12-6 direction, it is easier to read the time. In addition, the face is convex in both 12-6 and 3-9 directions, which results in the delicate effect on the dial image. Silicon is used for the band, because it is safe for the human body. With the pursuit of the concept, “human” in both the creation of the form and the use of the material, a new watch is made to fuse the form and materials.
“‘Hu’ simply means human. A clear and pure statement embodied in a timepiece for ISSEY MIYAKE. In many ways it is a fusion between the incredible works of Issey-san, his constant invention, respect for materials and almost spiritual serenity in the way his clothes relate to the human form. It truly is a creative bonding and all my life long feelings about watches as a prosthetic extension of the body, the concept of anatomical contouring and the organic sculptural possibilities of materials that integrate into one single skin.”
The design will be launched on 15 September in Japan, the USA and Europe.
Japanese designers Isolation Unit have designed the interior of a salon in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Japan, for hair-dressing chain LIM.
Surfaces of the interior have been left bare and unfinished, exposing the marks left on the walls and floors after stripping the space.
The reception and office has been placed inside a freight-container, which also acts as a wall to separate the entrance from the salon in the back.
Photographs are by Takumi Ota.
Here’s some text from Isolation Unit:
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LIM CODE
LIM Hair (Less Is More) was founded 1991 and collaborates with ISOLATIONUNIT/ since 2005. The company has a very original business strategy: It is organized almost community-like: The employees don’t quit after a few years as ordinary, they enter as young apprentices, get training and then move between the different shops, where they work on their own account.
Once all workplaces are occupied, the company expands and builds another branch to let the young stylists move up. Although it is a single company with a chain of shops, every branch is unique and has its particular identity and clientele: For example LIM Hair Clinie in Tokyo Naka-Meguro, with its sober ambiance and counseling based service is visited mostly by people in their 30’s, that frequent the fine little select-shops and design cafes in the neighborhood.
APARTMENT+LIM in Osaka on the other hand has a very mixed clientele: The different senior stylists, that work in their individually designed ‘booths’, all have their own steady customers.
While the training section of the shop, where the upcoming stylist work, attracts very young people.
LIM CODE, the latest shop we designed, it opened June 12, was built precisely for these young stylists that completed their training and are moving up. Because also the targeted customers are younger, the shop is located in Tokyos bubbly Harajuku-area and prices are set lower than in the other branches.
The concept emerged from these premises and the project was consequently throughout low-cost.
This time, the rigorously minimal approach, that all LIM shops we designed have in common, not only applies to the appearance, but physically to the construction itself: Only indispensable interventions were made and the space was intentionally left ‘unfinished’: walls, floor and ceiling were left bare after dismantling and instead of separating walls, we placed a freight-container, that contains office and reception.
The rough and provisional setting reflects the situation of the fresh-baked stylists from Osaka who moved to the capital to start their career with just little means, but lots of ambitions.
New York and Beijing designers Elevation Workshop have completed the interior of a clothing store in Beijing, China.
The interior contains raised platforms arranged in an L-shape with dark grey walkways cutting between them.
The designers wanted this division of space to simultaneously evoke a walk-in cupboard, catwalk and stage.
Two red rails span three walls of the shop.
Photographs courtesy of Elevation Workshop and JR & Others.
Here’s some more information from Elevation Workshop:
The “L-Container” functions dually as a spacial volume and a separation element.
The floor inside was lifted to represent a stage. The “L-Container” introduces a contoured alleyway to recall the sensation of a private walk-in-closet at home, which is the real stage for actual people.
A convertible dressing room at the end of its turn is to place real women at the center of the deepened “display window” which projects directly towards the entryway and traverses through the whole store.
Gray tiles pave the catwalks penetrating the “L-container,” weaving between the public and private space. This composition of the store’s circulation creates the visual and physical connections between all areas essential in a retail establishment.
The two-way hanger system creates a vivid red belt, continually lacing through lighted wall niches around the room. CNC technology was used to pre-fabricate materials such as the flooring and resin panels, while thousands of beads were arrayed by hand to create a crystal curtain with the store logo patterned within.
