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    El Departamento designs Barcelona eyewear store as a “challenging visual exercise”

    Slight variations in tone and texture differentiate surfaces inside the PJ Lobster glasses store in Barcelona, which Spanish interiors studio El Departamento has finished entirely in green.

    The shop in the El Born district features walls, floors and stuccoed ceilings all covered in soft, tranquil tones of seafoam green, creating an immersive experience designed to challenge the eye.
    The PJ Lobster store in Barcelona is finished entirely in green”The human eye is able to distinguish more different shades of green than any other colour,” El Departamento told Dezeen. “That’s because, deep inside us, we’re still hunters from the prehistoric era.”
    “So that’s what we wanted to aim for here, not to hunt anything but to recover the challenging visual exercise of exploring a wide range of greens.”
    A glossy counter stands at the centre of the shopThe practice was also influenced by Charles and Ray Eames’s short film Powers of Ten, which explores the scales of the universe.

    This informed El Departamento’s study of different textures within the store “from macro to micro”, from the small-grained velvety micro-cement on the floor to the rough textured plaster that was applied to the wall by hand to achieve the right level of thickness.
    “We wanted to get to the last step, just before a texture becomes a topography,” the studio said. “It was done manually, carefully and step by step to achieve the perfect state.”
    The examination room is located at the rear of the storeStainless steel is another key player in the store, used to create banks of display shelving that frame each pair of glasses, with the soft sheen of the metal creating a striking contrast with the deliberately blobby texture of the walls behind.
    Another textural juxtaposition is provided by the large, capsule-like counter at the heart of the store with its high-shine gloss finish and mirrored top.

    EBBA Architects transforms former jellied-eel restaurant into eyewear store

    Further back in the store is an area dedicated to visual examinations, delineated by a shiny pleather curtain and a softer carpeted floor.
    The result, according to El Departamento, is “a vibrant space that swings between the soft and the hard, the rough and the velvety”.
    Glasses are displayed on stainless steel shelvesThe studio has been collaborating with PJ Lobster since the eyewear brand was founded in 2018 under the name Project Lobster, helping the company to expand from an online business into real-life stores.
    With this latest outpost, El Departamento wanted to encapsulate the evolution of the brand and its products.
    The examination room is hidden behind a shiny pleather curtain”We wanted to show that the brand has matured,” the studio said. “We tried to show somehow the organic evolution of the brand by giving this space a more technical and precise atmosphere, where the wide range of textures speaks of the precision levels of the products.”
    Other monochrome eyewear stores include Lunettes Selection in Berlin, which is enveloped by mint-green floor-to-ceiling cabinets, and Melbourne’s Vision Studio where cool-toned industrial materials such as aluminium and concrete are paired with grey marble surfaces.
    The photography is by José Hevia.

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    EBBA Architects transforms former jellied-eel restaurant into eyewear store

    Local studio EBBA Architects has designed a store for eyewear brand Cubitts that preserves and draws on the original 1930s interior of the traditional F Cooke restaurant on London’s Broadway Market.

    The restaurant, which sold cockney dishes such as jellied eel and pie and mash, had been located on the east London street since 1900 but was given a modernist update in the 1930s.
    The Cubitts store on Broadway Market is located inside a former restaurantEBBA Architects turned the space into a 145-square-metre Cubitts store but kept almost all the original interiors of the Grade II-listed restaurant, which had been unoccupied since 2019.
    F Cooke’s marble tables were given new legs made from stained birch plywood and now hold eyewear display cases in a sunny hue that matches the original wall tiles.
    Pale yellow tiles clad the walls”The tables are original but we designed the legs to kind of make it feel like a new feature,” EBBA Architects founder Benni Allan told Dezeen.

    “The table has just been scrubbed up,” he said. “Imagine how many nice pies have been eaten on that table.”
    “I think what’s nice is that everything below [the tables] has had this quite warm treatment to bring in a nice texture and tone, and then everything above is much lighter.”
    Different coloured material samples are displayed on wooden shelvesThe studio also kept the original stained-glass windows and the counter that used to serve food, turning it into a point of sale, while a repair station for glasses fills the window facing the street.
    Pale yellow tiles bordered by bands of contrasting blue and turquoise tiles decorate the walls. These are the original interior from 1930 and were cleaned using “loads of elbow grease”, Allan said.
    The former food counter was turned into a point of saleIn the main showroom of the two-storey store, the studio also kept the restaurant’s mirrors, only removing one to create a display case and sales point.
    “All the additions are kind of appendages or accoutrements on the base of the original structure,” Cubitts founder Tom Broughton told Dezeen.
    An orange staircase leads to the lower floorDownstairs, EBBA Architects made more interventions, as the space was dark and hadn’t been furnished to the same level as the main upstairs space.
    “It was really quite dark and dingy down there, so the colours from upstairs informed this really bright orange in the staircase,” Allan said.

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    The studio used stained plywood to create a sliding wood screen with a square pattern based on the tiles in the main store, as well as creating a bright-coloured staff room with a “secret door”.
    It also added tiled floors with a decorative pattern in a colour palette that references that of the restaurant.
    “There’s that really beautiful intricate detailing upstairs, so we wanted to sort of mirror that down here with these different patterns in the floor,” Allan said.
    EBBA Architects designed a sliding door for the eye-test roomDownstairs also holds the eyewear testing centre, which is located underneath the street above.
    Broughton and Allan tried to keep as many of the original details from the restaurant as possible. The tank where the live eels were once kept before being boiled is left standing in an outdoor space downstairs and the restaurant’s sign remains above the front door.
    The store has retained its original signage and one of the benchesOne of the benches, on which people used to sit and eat, has been placed outside the store. And the Cooke family behind the restaurant chain – which still has two outposts – has lent Cubitts some of its original pie tins alongside the bowls used to serve jellied eels and a picture of founder Bob Cooke.
    The Cubitts Broadway Market store is located in an area that has become increasingly gentrified over the past decade, with many local shops being taken over by chains.
    Original stained-glass windows decorate the interiorThough some people have been nostalgic about the time when the store was a pie-and-mash shop, Allan and Broughton said there have also been positive reactions to the refurbishment
    “People have actually been really chuffed that it stayed the same,” Allan said.
    “Someone could come in here in a decade or two and actually put it back into a pie and mash shop. Even though [the changes] feel purposeful, it’s quite a light touch. If anything, we’ve kind of given it a new lease of life, because it was actually pretty grimy.”
    A repair station sits in the windowThis is also the general tactic for Cubitts, Broughton said. When looking for new stores, the brand focuses on finding spaces that have existing interiors, with other outposts set in a 19th-century townhouse in Belgravia and a Victorian arcade in Leeds.
    “Ideally, [the store] already has this existing structure and framework that you can clean up and add a bit of product and a few fittings to,” he said.
    “And that’s the really nice thing, right? If you can take something that’s already beautiful, give it a new lease of life and make it relevant to someone today, that’s really cool.”

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    Nina + Co brings biomaterials into MONC eyewear store in London

    Cornstarch-foam shelves meet mycelium display plinths in this London store that Nina + Co has designed for bioplastic eyewear brand MONC.

    Nestled among a parade of high-end shops in Marylebone, MONC sells glasses made from bio-acetate – an acetate produced completely without fossil fuels – which are packaged using recycled leather cases and compostable cornstarch foam.
    The first MONC eyewear location sits along a row of shops in MaryleboneWhen local studio Nina + Co was brought in to design MONC’s debut store, the team was keen to incorporate biomaterials throughout the interior, while also taking the brand’s short-term lease of the retail unit into account.
    “Circularity was key,” said the studio. “Almost everything we brought into that building was entirely bio-based or recycled.”
    “The furniture is expertly built to last but can be disassembled for re-use, recycling or return to the earth as nourishment.”

    The store features a ceiling installation made from cornstarch foamUpon entering the store, visitors find themselves under an undulating ceiling installation crafted from corrugated panels of cornstarch foam.
    Thicker blocks of the material were used to create rows of squishy-looking shelves, which can be used for packaging or simply dissolved in water when they eventually start to show signs of wear and tear.
    The foam was also used to form small shelvesDisplay plinths made out of mycelium – the vegetative part of a fungus – were dotted across the store to showcase different eyewear models.
    In between the shelves, a couple of long mirrors are balanced on hunks of concrete that were salvaged from roadworks nearby.
    A recycled PET island sits at the centre of the store beside mycelium display plinthsThe craggy concrete was chosen as a subtle nod to the rugged Dolomite mountains, which can be seen from the Italian town where all MONC eyewear is produced.
    Nina + Co worked closely alongside Welsh manufacturers Smile Plastics and London joiner EJ Ryder to design the store’s recycled PET island and bench seat, which are an apricot-orange hue.

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    As both furniture pieces were joined with mechanical bolts rather than glues, they can easily be taken apart, flat packed and transported to a different MONC store for reuse.
    Walls throughout the interior were finished with VOC-free clay paint while the unit’s existing floor was covered with a water-based sealant.
    The plastic was also used to form a bench seat”Previous tenants had ripped up their floor to leave a plywood subfloor, with markings of the adhesive still evident and some paint bucket outlines,” the studio explained.
    “After a test patch, we were convinced that a simple water-based sealant would give it a beautiful depth and sheen with the industrial feel of concrete [while being] kinder to the planet and the budget.”
    Walls were washed with a calming clay paintMONC is one of five projects shortlisted in the small retail interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
    It’s going head-to-head with the Durat showroom by Linda Bergroth, which is decked out in an unusual mix of colours, and Aesop’s Yorkville store by Odami with its oxblood-red balusters.
    The photography is by Handover.

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    Yuko Nagayama & Associates creates trapezoidal glasses shop and community hub

    Tokyo studio Yuko Nagayama & Associates has completed a copper-clad eyewear store for brand JINS in Maebashi, Japan, which contains a cafe and rooftop terrace.

    Named JINS Park, the shop in Gunma Prefecture was designed to act as a space for the community to gather whether they are shopping in the store or not.
    Yuko Nagayama & Associates has created a glasses shop in Maebashi”We proactively created public spaces that are not part of the sales floor, which encourages community members to come for reasons other than shopping,” the studio explained.
    “In stores of this type, the second floor is typically not open to customers, [we] utilised it as a terrace and also included a bakery-cafe in the store.”
    The shop contains a cafeYuko Nagayama & Associates envisions the space being used as an indoor community plaza with food and coffee served along with glasses being sold.

    A large triangular staircase divides the space in two, with the glasses store located on one side and the cafe on the other.
    The large central stairs lead to a first floor terraceThe widening staircase, under which the cafe’s servery and the shop’s consultation rooms are located, leads to an additional seating area and a triangular, outdoor terrace.
    This space is intended as another community area, offering benches and a generous amount of open space where children can run around.
    Timber units were used to display glassesBroadly lit by floor-to-ceiling windows with the roof supported by angled columns, the interior is broken up by a number of freestanding timber units.
    For the eyewear shop, these are used to display the glasses on sale, while for the cafe they contain pastries and other food
    The trapezoidal building is topped with a roof terraceThe trapezoidal building is topped with a sulphurised-copper facade that was designed to mimic the reddish-brown Mount Akagi that can be seen from the shop.
    Visitors approach JINS Park through a neatly landscaped garden, before being greeted by the central fan-shaped staircase which provides seating with views of the store, garden, and street.

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    “We began by reversing the typical layout of roadside stores, with a parking lot located in front, and instead located the parking lot behind the building,” said Yuko Nagayama & Associates.
    “As the landscaping matures and the copper facade blends more fully into its surroundings, we hope the store will become part of everyday life in the neighbourhood,” said the studio.
    The ground level opens onto relaxed outdoor spacesRecent glasses shops featured on Dezeen include Stephanie Thatenhorst’s playful pattern-filled interior for a children’s opticians in Munich and a shop clad in colourful sheets of locally sourced plastic waste by sustainable materials company Plasticiet and Amsterdam eyewear company Ace & Tate.
    Other recent developments include eyewear stores by Child Studio for Cubitts, a company that asks for each shop to be designed in a unique style that reflects the history of its local neighbourhood. The studio’s Leeds store is inspired by Victorian joinery, whilst another store is based on Soho’s colourful postwar reputation.
    The photography is by Daici Ano and Tomoyuki Kusunose.

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    Child Studio transforms 19th-century London townhouse into Cubitts eyewear store

    London practice Child Studio has created an “intimate and domestic atmosphere” inside this store by local eyewear brand Cubitts, which occupies a townhouse in Belgravia.

    Taking over the building’s basement and ground floor, the shop was designed to draw on both the modernist aesthetic of Cubitts’ frames and the history of Belgravia.
    Cubitts Belgravia has a front room with a cast iron fireplace (top and above)The central London neighbourhood was first established in the 1830s in line with plans by Georgian master builder Thomas Cubitt, who also gave the eyewear brand its name.
    “It was important for us to build a layered narrative for this project and to connect the townhouse architecture with the modernist ethos of the brand,” said Child Studio founders Alexy Kos and Che Huang.
    The store’s display stands are designed to look like room dividersThe studio reinstated many of the building’s Georgian design features, which had disappeared over years of renovation works.

    The original wooden floorboards were uncovered and restored, while the walls were painted a chalky yellow hue that was typical of the period.
    Most of the doorways were either extended to reach three metres in height or adorned with ornate architraves that complement the interior’s wall mouldings and cornices.
    Some of the doorways reach three metres in heightIn the store’s front room, the studio installed a cast iron fireplace that is meant to foster an “intimate and domestic atmosphere”.
    “We imagined a contemporary interpretation of a classic drawing room – an elegant living room where guests may be welcomed and entertained,” explained the studio.
    “We were particularly inspired by the pioneering designer Eileen Gray, who lived in this part of London in the early years of her career in the 1900s.”

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    On the other side of the space is a custom concertina display stand that’s meant to resemble a traditional room divider.
    This stand is lined with creamy linen-like wallpaper while another stand at the rear of the store was crafted from mahogany and finished with brass edging.
    Domestic decorative items like lamps and armchairs were placed throughout the storeOther homely design features like mirrors and upholstered armchairs were dotted throughout the store as decoration.
    There are also a number of antique light fixtures including Gray’s domed Jumo lamp and a golden leaf-shaped desk light by 1970s Italian designer Tommaso Barbi.
    This includes a leaf-like brass lamp by Italian designer Tommaso BarbiChild Studio has designed several of Cubitts’ eyewear stores across the UK.
    Among them is a branch in Leeds that takes cues from different design periods through history and an outpost in London’s Soho, which draws inspiration from the neighbourhood’s infamous sex shops.
    The photography is by Felix Speller.

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    Nika Zupanc brings “Alice in Wonderland ambience” to Morela eyewear store in Ljubljana

    Massive lamps, rotating mirrors and a legion of drawers feature inside the Morela eyewear store, which Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc has completed in Ljubljana.

    Morela has been offering optician services in the Slovenian capital since the early 2000s and went on to launch its own line of glasses in 2019.
    Locally based Zupanc was brought in to design both the brand’s debut eyewear collection and now the retail space to match.
    Powder-blue drawers appear throughout the Morela eyewear storeSet in Ljubljana’s Citypark shopping centre, the store is defined by the slim powder-blue drawers with brass knobs, which appear everywhere from the cash desk to the base of the freestanding counters and low-lying sideboards.
    “The client had a clear idea of how many glasses they wanted to display on the shelves, how many they wanted to put in the drawers and how many they wanted to display on the tables,” explained Zupanc.

    “Thus a drawer became a unit of measurement and served as a building block, from which the entire interior was created.”
    Brass-edged mirrors can be turned to show different angles of the storeThe abundant storage is also a nod to one of Zupanc’s earlier designs – a 140-drawer cylindrical cabinet she created for Milan’s Rossana Orlandi Gallery in 2017.
    Eyewear models are displayed along the sides of the room inside brass-framed shelves that mirror the proportions of the drawers.
    A curtain hides treatment rooms at the back of the storeTo enhance the “Alice in Wonderland ambience” of the space, Zupanc introduced two huge floor lamps with pleated white shades, both handmade in Italy.
    One towers above the cash desk while the other pokes out through a blush-coloured velvet pouf to provide both lighting and seating. Alternatively, customers can sit on velvet-upholstered high chairs that are dotted across the room.

    Nika Zupanc designs a tower of drawers for storing keepsakes

    Mirrors are suspended from a thin brass picture rail that runs along the perimeter of the room. Each is housed in a circular brass frame and can be rotated to reflect different angles of the room.
    The rail also holds heavy powder-blue curtains that separate the main shop floor from a treatment area and repair room at the rear of the plan.
    A brass pipe runs along the upper edge of the roomOther striking eyewear stores include Vision Studio in Melbourne, which hides behind a perforated aluminium facade, and the Cubitts shop in London’s Soho, which nods to the sex shops and adult cinemas found in the notorious neighbourhood.
    The photography is by Saša Hess.

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