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      Cúpla decorates Rixo Marylebone store with hand-painted murals

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      Interior design studio Cúpla has completed a boutique for fashion brand Rixo in central London that features hand-painted illustrations and colourful zellige tiles.

      The clothing store on Marylebone High Street was revamped by Cúpla, whose creative director Gemma McCloskey is the twin sister of Rixo co-founder Orlagh McCloskey.
      The interior designer had previously designed the brand’s flagship store on the King’s Road and wanted the refurbished Marylebone location to have a similar feel.
      Rixo’s Marylebone store is covered in hand-painted murals”We wanted the store to embody everything we had previously created for Rixo’s flagship store but within its own right,” Gemma McCloskey told Dezeen.
      “A sense of escapism paired with a welcoming warmth within a boutique setting were the key emotions we wanted the customer to feel.”

      As the brand sells hand-painted prints, the designer wanted the store’s interior to feature illustrations to reflect the style of the clothes.
      It features modified vintage furniture”Understanding Rixo’s roots and the fact their USP is hand-painted prints, it felt tangible to represent the brand’s values and beginnings with the illustrations,” Gemma McCloskey said.
      “Given the space is quite small, we treated it almost like a living room space within a home and felt we could make it all-encompassing and personal.”
      Artist Sam Wood created colourful illustrations for the storeArtist Sam Wood hand-painted murals and illustrations throughout the store, which has a bright and playful colour palette and also features traditional glazed Moroccan zellige tiles.
      “We wanted the colour palette to feel really fresh and bright,” the designer explained.
      “Although there is an abundance of colours used, every line of the mural or the ‘random’ coloured zellige tile layout was methodically composed to ensure a right balance between the colours was struck.”

      James Shaw installs jumbo foot in London Camper store

      The studio added decorative arches and classical mouldings to the store in a nod to the architecture and heritage of its Marylebone neighbourhood.
      The store also features bespoke fitting room curtains with pickle-green and flora-pink stripes by fabric brand Colours of Arley.
      Moroccan zellige tiles add to the playful interiorCúpla used vintage furniture pieces throughout the store, which sells Rixo’s full collection including ready-to-wear and bridalwear.
      “We actually modified existing pieces of vintage furniture, which had been previously sourced by [Rixo founders] Orlagh and Henrietta years ago in the early days of Rixo,” Gemma McCloskey said.
      “They were the perfect fit for the space but didn’t have the functionality we required, so we decided to alter these instead or replace them.”
      The store is located on Marylebone High Street”It was much more sustainable and because the pieces were from the early years of Rixo, they had sentimental value so we didn’t want to replace them,” she added.
      Other recent London stores featured on Dezeen include a Camper store with a giant foot sculpture and a stationery store with a demountable interior.
      The photography is courtesy of Rixo.

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      V&A’s Tropical Modernism exhibition explores “the politics behind the concrete”

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      London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has launched its Tropical Modernism exhibition, which highlights the architectural movement’s evolution from colonial import to a “tool of nation building”.

      According to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition aims to examine the complex context, power dynamics and post-colonial legacy of tropical modernism – an architectural style that developed in South Asia and West Africa in the late 1940s – while also centralising and celebrating its hidden figures.
      London’s V&A museum has opened a major exhibition exploring tropical modernism”Tropical modernism is experiencing something of a modish revival as an exotic and escapist style popular in verdant luxury hotels, bars and concrete jungle houses,” the exhibition’s lead curator Christopher Turner told Dezeen.
      “But it has a problematic history and, through an examination of the context of British imperialism and the de-colonial struggle, the exhibition seeks to look at the history of tropical modernism before and after Independence, and show something of the politics behind the concrete,” he continued.
      The exhibition traces the evolution of tropical modernism within a South Asian and West African contextThe exhibition follows the V&A’s Tropical Modernism exhibition at the 2023 Venice Biennale, which revealed the team’s precursory research on tropical modernism in a West African setting.

      For the in-house iteration of the exhibition, additional architectural models, drawings and archival imagery have been introduced to interrogate tropical modernism in India alongside the African perspective.
      Exhibition materials line a series of rooms within the V&A’s Porter Gallery, divided by brightly coloured partitions and louvred walls referencing tropical modernist motifs.
      Archival imagery, architectural drawings and physical models line the gallery roomsThe exhibition begins by tracing tropical modernism back to its early development by British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Stationed together in Ghana from 1944, Drew and Fry adapted international modernism to the African climate, proposing functional over ornamental design.
      Drew and Fry would also become part of the Department of Tropical Studies at the Architectural Association (AA), which exported British architects to the colonies from 1954 in a bid to neutralise calls for independence.
      The exhibition aims to centralise local professionals who have gone widely unrecognised for their contributions to the movementThe exhibition continues by spotlighting local Ghanaian figures who worked with Fry and Drew, noting the power shifts that were taking place behind the scenes to reappropriate the architectural style for an emerging era of colonial freedom.
      Influential political leaders Jawaharlal Nehru in India and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana are the exhibition’s key personas, framing the evolution of tropical modernism from conception to regionalisation.
      Gallery rooms are divided by brightly coloured partitions informed by tropical modernist motifs”The heroes of our exhibition are Nehru and Nkrumah, the first prime ministers of India and Ghana,” Turner explained. “Tropical modernism, a colonial invention, survived the transition to Independence and was appropriated and adapted by Nehru and Nkrumah as a tool of nation building.”
      “Nkrumah, who sometimes sketched designs for the buildings he wanted on napkins, created the first architecture school in sub-Saharan Africa to train a new generation of African architects, and this institution has partnered with us on a five-year research project into tropical modernism.”
      According to the V&A’s research, tropical modernism shifted from its western Bauhaus roots towards a localised vernacular stylesThrough a host of physical models and artefacts, the city of Chandigarh becomes the exhibition’s narrative focal point for tropical modernism in India.
      Under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Chandigarh was the first large-scale modernist project, recruiting Drew and Fry along with French architect Le Corbusier to plan the ideal utopian urban centre.
      As with Nkrumah – who saw how the Africanisation of architecture could become a symbol of progress and change – the exhibition also aims to highlight Nehru’s ambitions for a localised modernism drawing from the Indian vernacular, rather than the Western Bauhaus style.

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      The display culminates in a video featuring 16 key tropical modernist structures, interspersed with interviews and footage explaining the social and political context behind each building’s realisation.
      “We made a three-screen 28-minute film, shot in Ghana and featuring panoramic portraits of over a dozen buildings, cut with archive footage from the time and interviews with architects like John Owusu Addo and Henry Wellington, and Nkrumah’s daughter, the politician Samia Nkrumah,” said Turner.
      The exhibition aims to address gaps in the museum’s African and South Asian studiesAccording to Turner, the exhibition begins to address gaps in the V&A’s collections and archives pertaining to architecture and design in the global south.
      “Archives are themselves instruments of power, and West African and Indian architects are not as prominent in established archives, which many institutions have now realised and are working to address,” Turner explained.
      “Tropical modernism was very much a co-creation with local architects who we have sought to name – all of whom should be much better known, but are excluded from established canons.”
      The display will inhabit the V&A’s Porter Gallery until 22 September 2024Bringing tropical modernism back into contemporary discourse was also important to the V&A as a timely investigation of low-tech and passive design strategies.
      “Tropical modernism was a climate responsive architecture – it sought to work with rather than against climate,” Turner said.
      “As we face an era of climate change, it is important that tropical modernism’s scientifically informed principles of passive cooling are reexamined and reinvented for our age,” he added.
      “I hope that people will be interested to learn more about these moments of post-colonial excitement and opportunity, and the struggle by which these hard-earned freedoms were won.”
      A 28-minute video captures footage of remaining tropical modernist structures at the end of the exhibitionThe V&A museum in South Kensington houses permanent national collections alongside a series of temporary activations and exhibitions.
      As part of London Design Festival 2023, the museum hosted a furniture display crafted from an Alfa Romeo car by Andu Masebo and earlier in the year, architect Shahed Saleem created a pavilion in the shape of a mosque at the V&A as part of 2023’s Ramadan Festival.
      The photography is courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
      Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence will run from 2 March to 22 September 2024 at the V&A Museum in London. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit the Dezeen Events Guide.

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      James Shaw installs jumbo foot in London Camper store

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      British designer James Shaw has renovated a shop for fashion brand Camper on London’s Regent Street, which features a giant foot-shaped sculpture that functions as a till and a bench for trying on shoes.

      Located in a ground-level room within a building on Regent Street in central London, the store reopened last week.
      James Shaw has renovated the Camper store on Regent StreetShaw redesigned the interiors to reflect the Mallorcan heritage of Spanish footwear company Camper – a brand known for its bold and colourful creations.
      The designer constructed a 3.5-metre-tall sculpture in the shape of an oversized foot, which was covered in terracotta-hued wool and positioned on the shop floor.
      His design includes a jumbo footVisible from the street, the cartoon-like structure is multifunctional. It includes internal storage for products and a small booth that houses the till.

      Shoppers are also encouraged to perch on the jumbo toes while trying on shoes, making the foot a bench as well as a display unit.
      Shaw also created recycled plastic furniture”The foot is the key feature of our proposal. Somewhat surreal and unexpected yet fully connected to Camper’s sense of playfulness and whimsy,” said Shaw.
      “Reflected in the fully mirrored wall, it appears as a giant standing in the middle of the store.”
      Walnut was used to make display unitsThe designer, who works predominantly with recycled plastic, also created lumpy yellow shelving made from extruded slabs of the material, which – like the large foot – is reflected in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that makes up one of the walls.
      Shaw also combined his trademark gloopy plastic with walnut wood to create rounded stools, positioned underneath the yellow shelves.

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      On the opposite side of the room, the designer added smooth walnut display units mounted to the wall with twisted polished metal fixtures – also custom-made by Shaw.
      At the back of the store, shoppers can rest on geometric seating topped with textured mohair and clad in mirrored metal. The recognisable red Camper logo, positioned above the seating, was also reimagined with a Shaw-style, lumpy backdrop.
      The interiors are “a nod to mid-century modernism with a warped twist”Shaw created the store’s flooring using orange resin to match the colour of the large foot as well as the painted walls and ceiling, which are all finished in similar hues.
      The mix of materials is “a nod to mid-century modernism with a warped twist,” according to Camper.
      “Mediterranean roots are present in the colour scheme, where warm earthy tones meet shades of yellow and blue,” added the brand.
      Elsewhere, designer Jorge Penadés dressed a Málaga Camper shop with materials chosen to match the brand’s warehouse while architect Kengo Kuma created scalloped shelving out of concave ceramic tiles for a Barcelona branch.
      Shaw showcased pieces of his extruded recycled plastic furniture at the 2022 edition of London Design Festival in an installation he created with his partner, Lou Stoppard, that playfully explored tensions between couples who move in together.
      The photography is courtesy of Camper.

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      “Subtle luxury” defines Shoreditch jewellery store by Hollie Bowden Interiors

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      Interior design studio Hollie Bowden Interiors has created fine jeweller Rachel Boston’s flagship store and showroom in London.

      Located in Shoreditch’s Redchurch Street, the store is split into four main areas – the retail space, private appointment area, workshop and office space for the jeweller’s team of 12.
      The space blends a neutral palette of glass, steel and sycamore wood veneerThe store aims to blend a neutral material palette of glass and steel with sycamore wood veneer and velvet mohair upholstery.
      “Jewellery stores can be read as quite uninviting and exclusive,” Hollie Bowden Interiors founder Bowden told Dezeen. “I wanted to create the opposite experience to that, something that felt open and un-intimidating, yet special and elevated.”
      Bowden and designer EJR Barnes have created bespoke displays from mirror polished steelPlacing the jewellery centre stage was a key objective for Rachel Boston when briefing Bowden’s team.

      “Even though our pieces are striking, they are ultimately small objects by nature, so I didn’t want a huge amount of fussy furniture or bold colours to detract from the experience of customers viewing our pieces,” Rachel Boston told Dezeen.
      In response to the brief, Hollie Bowden created a compact 19-square-metre front retail space “inspired by the concept of a jewellery box that draws your attention into the small, intricate objects within”.
      The store on Redchurch street is split into four main areasSycamore veneer wall-cladding, limestone flooring and lining the display cases with ivory silk combine to create the jewellery-box effect, “emphasising this feeling of being cocooned in the space” Bowden told Dezeen.
      “I wanted to focus on materials that have a quiet beauty about them, that you have to get up close to really appreciate,” she continued.
      Bowden employs a refined approach to materials for this retail project in LondonThis process of refinement has been a hallmark of Bowden’s style since establishing her London-based studio in 2013.
      “Not over-designing projects with too many materials is very important – to give objects the space to sing,” she explained. “I’m always trying to reduce and simplify.”

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      Jewellery is displayed in floating window vitrines and a cantilever display desk, designed in collaboration with London-based artist and designer, EJR Barnes.
      Made from mirror polished steel, these bespoke displays introduce a “vertiginous moment that makes the space feel unique,” according to Bowden.
      For these cabinets, Bowden and Barnes drew on the utilitarian design language of archives which “display, protect, and organise what they contain in quite a neutral way”.
      Hollie Bowden’s retail space in Shoreditch has been designed in reference to jewellery boxesRather than using big ornamental gestures more common in jewellery retail, Bowden says this approach “represents a unique and original way of presenting jewellery”.
      “The idea of ‘subtle luxury’ feels like a great counterpoint to retail design at the moment that can feel like you’re in a casino,” she added.
      The frames of the cases are simple and uninterrupted, maximising the display of the jewellery and encouraging guests to roam freely around any area.
      The red cab chair placed at the front of the store is by Mario BelliniA Mario Bellini Cab Chair in a deep wine red, placed at the front of the store, works along the lines of the unexpected-red-theory interior trend, featured in our recent lookbook.
      Through a stainless steel-lined open doorway, the rear space is curtained off for private appointments. This larger 42-square-metre showroom in the back has a more relaxed and intimate feel that mirrors the art-deco style of Boston’s jewellery.
      The rear of the store is reserved for private appointmentsUpon entering the rear space, a brown short-pile carpet and bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohair signals the transition from the storefront.
      “We wanted to create two distinct spaces, independent of each other yet with a subtle link that reflects Rachel’s jewellery,” Bowden said.
      “While the spaces contrast, the continuations of steel and limestone allow for a striking continuity throughout.”
      The rear showroom features a bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohairOther projects by Hollie Bowden Interiors featured on Dezeen include a pared-back jewellery showroom and a London office space inspired by the sultry lighting of gentlemen’s clubs.
      The photography is by Richard Round-Turner.

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      AHMM to transform office into co-living space next to London’s Barbican estate

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      Developer HUB and investor Bridges Fund Management have revealed plans to convert a 1950s office building in London into Cornerstone, a co-living residential scheme designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

      Located on the edge of the Barbican estate, the Cornerstone project will draw from the iconic Barbican architecture to transform 45 Beech Street into 174 co-living residences along with street-level commercial spaces and amenities.
      “Building on the success of our previous London projects with HUB, we are joining forces again to transform an underloved office building in the heart of the city,” Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) director Hazel Joseph said.
      AHMM has revealed plans for a co-living retrofit next to London’s Barbican estateAHMM’s proposal aims to re-use as much of the building’s existing structure and facade as possible, taking a “retrofit-first approach” to minimise the need for new building works.
      The studio will also primarily work within the geometric parameters defined by the original envelope, while updating the rectilinear language to create uniform apertures for each co-living apartment.

      Referencing the Barbican estate, a series of arched, double-height extrusions will be introduced across the crown of the building to house additional co-living apartments.
      The design will adapt the existing building’s form and insert a series of arched spaces at the top”The architectural approach has been carefully considered, responding sensitively to the much-loved Barbican context, completing the northern frontage of the estate,” Joseph said.
      The arches will be partially set back from the building’s facade and lined with an asymmetric patchwork of glazed and tile panels underneath the curved overhangs.

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      At street level, warm red panel accents will contrast against the building’s neutral concrete finishes to highlight commercial and collective functions.
      The scheme will integrate a public cafe, a co-working space and community-focused amenities at its lower levels to improve the public realm for those who live and work in the area.
      “The existing structure of 45 Beech Street will be re-used and extended, creating a new residential community with shared amenities and breathing new life into the local streetscape,” Joseph explained.
      At street level, new commercial and public amenities will seek to activate the ground planeAccording to HUB and Bridges Fund Management, AHMM’s proposal was developed in collaboration with the community – including Barbican residents – who were consulted through a series of workshops and events.
      A website was also established to solicit viewpoints about the redevelopment, reiterating the design vision to establish a “vibrant community” that will adapt the original building and holistically contribute to the neighbourhood.
      AHMM was established in 1989 by Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan and Peter Morris in London. The studio has previously converted a 1930s block into New Scotland Yard’s headquarters in London and completed a mixed-use building in Southwark with interlocking flats.
      Also adjacent to the Barbican estate, Diller Scofidio & Renfro’s proposal for a pyramidal music centre was recently scrapped when the City of London Corporation revealed its plans for a “major renewal” of the Barbican.
      The images are courtesy of HUB and Bridges Fund Management.

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      Chai Guys Portobello cafe interior evokes “the colour of spices”

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      Local studio SODA has used warm colours and natural materials to create the first store for tea brand Chai Guys on Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill neighbourhood.

      The studio drew on the “informal nature” of drinking masala chai tea when designing the interior for the cafe – the first one for the Chai Guys brand, which has previously operated from market stalls.
      The Chai Guys cafe is located on Portobello Road in London”We wanted to keep true to the informal nature of drinking chai by creating a grounded space with low-level seating where there is always room for one more by pulling up a stool,” SODA interior designer Matilde Menezes told Dezeen.
      “The counter was kept quite low, too, to showcase the act of serving chai, which is quite theatrical.”
      The interior has plaster walls and boucle seatsThe Chai Guys Portobello cafe comprises a seating area and a front-of-house desk where the tea is prepared, as well as a bakery at the back that sells pastries.

      As many of the visitors will be getting takeaway drinks, Menezes says she wanted to provide “an impactful impression that was simple and subtle at the same time”.
      Timber panelling clads part of the wallsThe studio also aimed for the 55-square-metre space to be a peaceful refuge from hectic Portobello Road and to reference the Chai Guys branding.
      “The brand is a modern take on chai with its black dynamic typography layered over clean and minimal design,” Menezes explained.

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      “We wanted the colour palette to sit back and let the branding and product be the main event in moments such as the counter, the shopfront, and the retail shelving,” she added.
      “In areas where the branding wasn’t present, we wanted the palette to evoke the colours of the spices and standalone as a direct but understated reference to chai.”
      SODA used natural materials like leather and wood for the cafeThe studio chose to work mainly with natural materials for the interior, which features walls in Clayworks plaster.
      “Clayworks is non-toxic, has low embodied energy and carbon, is breathable, passively regulates humidity and is produced in the UK,” Menezes said.
      “On top of this, the handmade quality of each stroke and lived-in quality complemented the aesthetic we were trying to achieve.”
      A counter serves Chai tea and pastriesSODA also clad the walls in timber panelling and chose boucle and leather for the seating, adding to the store’s tactile feel.
      “Timber has its innate grain and richness, leather ages and provides sheen and the boucle appeals to the touch and is quite striking in the Masala tone,”  Menezes said.
      “All these tactile touchpoints were selected to be resilient in a high-traffic commercial space.”
      Other recent projects by SODA, which was founded by Laura Sanjuan and Russell Potter in 2012, include a colourful interior for The Office Group and a theatre with a revolving auditorium.

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      Oskar Kohnen fills “well-curated” London office with mid-century modern furniture

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      London studio Oskar Kohnen has outfitted a Mayfair office with mid-century modern furniture and contemporary pieces, which “are so well curated that no one would ever dare to throw them away”.

      Spread across three floors, the office is housed within a rectilinear building in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood with a gridded facade.
      Oskar Kohnen designed the office in London’s Mayfair area”It has a townhouse feeling,” studio founder Oskar Kohnen told Dezeen of the office, which he designed for developer Crosstree Real Estate.
      At its ground level, Kohnen clad the entrance hall with dark-stained wooden panels and added sconce lights to subtly illuminate the space.
      A cream Djinn sofa was placed in the entrance hallAn amorphous Djinn sofa, created by industrial designer Olivier Mourge in 1965, was placed in one corner.

      “We worked a lot with vintage furniture, and as for the new pieces we sourced, we hope they are so well curated that no one would ever dare to throw them away,” said Kohnen.
      The first floor features a living room-style space”Warm and inviting” interiors characterise a living room-style space on the first floor, which was created in direct contrast to the industrial appearance of the exterior.
      An L-shaped velvet and stainless-steel sofa finished in a burnt orange hue was positioned next to white-stained brise soleil screens and a bright resin coffee table.
      Terrazzo accents were chosen for the kitchen”The social spaces have an earthy and calm colour palette – yet they are lush and dramatic,” explained Kohnen.
      A pair of low-slung 1955 Lina armchairs by architect Gianfranco Frattini also features in this space, while floor-to-ceiling glazing opens onto a residential-style terrace punctuated by potted plants.
      Oskar Kohnen added a bright gridded ceiling to one of the meeting roomsSimilar tones and textures were used to dress the rest of the rooms on this level.
      These spaces include a kitchen with contemporary terrazzo worktops and a meeting room with a red gridded ceiling that was set against cream-coloured panels and modernist black chairs.

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      The second floor holds the main office, complete with rows of timber desks and an additional meeting room-library space characterised by the same reddish hues as the low-lit entrance hall.
      “The idea was to create an office space that had soul to it and would offer a more personal take on a work environment, rather than the usual corporate spaces we are so familiar with in London,” Kohen concluded.
      The second floor holds the main officeFounded in 2011, Kohnen’s eponymous studio has completed a range of interior projects, including a mint-green eyewear store in Berlin and a pink-tinged paint shop in southwest London.
      The photography is by Salva Lopez.

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      Aro Archive store features pastel-coloured rooms and industrial control station

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      Fashion retailer Aro Archive’s pastel-hued east London store was designed by founder Ariana Waiata Sheehan to evoke “a sense of otherworldliness”.

      The store, located in Shoreditch, replaces the brand’s previous, more industrial store on nearby Broadway Market and was intended to have a frivolous feel.
      The Aro Archive store has pastel-coloured floors in pink and blueThe interior has “a sense of otherworldliness, escapism and fun,” Waiata Sheehan explains, comparing it to “a mixture between a mushroom trip and going to visit someone’s rich aunty who runs a gallery”.
      “We’ve always had very neutral industrial spaces,” she told Dezeen. |But you can get an industrial Zara these days, so time to switch it up and go full personality, which has been scary but so worth it.”
      It is located inside an old Victorian warehouseLocated inside a five-storey former Victorian warehouse, Aro Archive, which sells pre-owned clothing by avant-garde designers, was organised so that each floor has a different colour.

      Monochrome pastel pink, blue and white hues decorate the different levels, which also feature a wide range of reclaimed and recycled materials, furniture and artworks.
      Founder Ariana Waiata Sheehan created the interior design”The pink floor is supposed to feel very warm, womb-like and enclosed,” Waiata Sheehan said. “The blue floor is more light and otherworldly. And the two white floors are very ethereal and calm.”
      White duvet covers by fashion house Maison Martin Margiela were used to create curtains for the changing rooms, while interior pillars are made from reclaimed 1990s metal lamp posts that the designer sourced from a scrapyard in Preston.
      Duvet covers by Maison Martin Margiela frame the changing rooms”The building and surrounding area feel very London, so we did want to bring in a sense of that for example with the lamp posts, metal works and details, bright neon lights and so forth,” Waiata Sheehan said.
      She sourced a number of unusual furnishings for the Aro Archive store, including an industrial control station from a paper-manufacturing plant that is now used as a till.

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      “The industrial paper control station I’ve been watching on eBay for nearly 4 years, waiting for a time I had the space to buy it,” Waiata Sheehan explained. “I wanted something different to the normal till, they’re all so boring and square.”
      The store also has another large metal till and metal drawers that originally came from a 1980s Mary Quant store and were rescued from a squat in Hackney Wick.
      A large metal till was originally from a Mary Quant storeWaiata Sheehan also sourced several smaller pieces for the boutique, where customers can purchase everything down to the artwork, furniture and accessories.
      “I do all the buying so everything is here because I love it in some way,” she explained. “But in terms of favourite pieces in store right now?”
      “For fashion, it’s the Rick Owens orange shearling gimp mask gilet, for objects the Shirin Guild ceramic incense holders and for furniture the wobbly glass table with magazine racks.”
      Waiata Sheehan bought an old industrial control station from eBayWaiata Sheehan hopes the Aro Archive boutique will feel like a home away from home and help to create a community feel in the area.
      “I think Shoreditch is lacking a sense of community and I wanted to work that into the space,” she said. “The feeling of a chaotic family home and a feeling of togetherness.”
      Lampposts from a scrapyard form pillars inside the storeOther London stores with notable interior design recently covered on Dezeen include Swedish fashion brand Toteme’s newly-opened Mayfair store and a Coach pop-up store at Selfridges that had fixtures made from recyclable materials.
      The photography is by John Munro.

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