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      Customers exchange urine for soap at Het Nieuwe Instituut pop-up shop

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      Cultural centre Het Nieuwe Instituut is rethinking the archetypal museum shop with a pop-up at Dutch Design Week, designed to encourage more ethical, resource-conscious consumption.

      Instead of offering a straightforward exchange of wares for money, New Store 1.0 gives patrons the opportunity to trade their urine for a piece of Piss Soap and encourages them to place their phones on specially designed fixtures to provide lighting for the venue once the sun goes down.
      Het Nieuwe Instituut has launched its debut pop-up shop at Dutch Design WeekTaking over Residency for the People – a hybrid restaurant and artist residency in Eindhoven – the pop-up also serves up two different versions of the same seabass dish, one made using wild locally caught fish and the other using fish that was industrially farmed and imported.
      The pop-up is the first of two trial runs for the New Store, aimed at helping Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut work out how to design its own museum shop to prioritise positive social and environmental impact over mere financial gain.
      Arthur Guilleminot’s Piss Soap is among the projects on offerIn collaboration with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and research consultancy The Seeking State, the second trial will take place at next year’s Milan design week, with the aim to open the first dedicated shop in the museum’s Rotterdam location in 2025.

      “It all started out with the idea that we don’t have a museum shop per se,” Nieuwe Instituut’s programme manager Nadia Troeman told Dezeen. “A museum shop, as we know, has books and trinkets and gadgets. And it’s not really doing well for the planet or the environment.”
      “So we were like, how can we make the act of consuming better? How can we consume differently to help not just ourselves but the environment as well?”
      Visitors are invited to donate their urine via a poster in the toilet. Photo by Jennifer HahnFor the Dutch Design Week (DDW) pop-up, Nieuwe Instituut found the three featured projects by Dutch designers Arthur Guilleminot, Brogen Berwick and Arnout Meijer via an open call.
      The aim was to help the designers trial their ideas for how the exchange of goods could be less extractive and transactional in a real-world scenario.
      This can then be placed on a shelf outside the bathroom. Photo by Tracy Metz”The project is part of a broader institutional agenda of ours to become more of a testing ground,” explained the museum’s director Aric Chen. “It’s part of rethinking the role of cultural institutions as being places that can do more than host debates, discussions and presentations.”
      “So our aim is to take some of these projects that try to think about how we can do less damage, take them out of the graduation shows, take them out of the museum galleries, take them out of the biennales and put them into the real world, with real consumers, audiences and real people to see what we can learn from it,” he continued.

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      Guilleminot used the opportunity to expand his ongoing Piss Soap project, with a poster in the venue’s toilet inviting visitors to donate their pee by relieving themselves into designated cups and discreetly placing them on a newly added shelf outside the bathroom window.
      This can then be exchanged for a piece of soap, made using urine donated by previous participants and other waste materials from human activities such as used cooking oil.
      The soap takes three months to cure and is entirely odourless, helping to break up dirt and grease thanks to the urine’s high ammonia content.
      Those who are eating at the New Store can choose between two kinds of fishThe aim of the project is to find a new application for an underutilised waste material and engage people in a kind of circular urine economy.
      “The idea was to revive the ancient tradition of using pee to make soap, which was done for many centuries, including in ancient Rome,” said Guilleminot.
      “Could I make a modern product using this ingredient and, in the meantime, also change our feelings of disgust about our golden organic liquid?”
      The shop’s interactive lighting fixtures were designed by Arnout MeijerThose having dinner at the New Store can choose between two iterations of the same fish dish.
      The first uses wild seabass that was caught locally by fishers Jan and Barbara Geertsema-Rodenburg in Lauwersoog while the other was farmed in Turkey and imported by seafood market G&B Yerseke.
      Devised by Berwick, who is a design researcher and “occasional fisherwoman”, the project challenges diners to ask themselves whether they are willing to pay the higher price associated with locally caught fish in exchange for its environmental benefits.
      “With the fish, they get a receipt of transparency,” Troeman added. “And one is obviously longer than the other.”
      The shop is open until 29 OctoberDiners were also asked to provide their own illumination as the sun goes down, in a bid to make them aware of our overconsumption of energy and the adverse effects our light pollution has on the natural rhythms of other animals.
      For this purpose, Meijer designed two wall-mounted fixtures inside the New Store that have no internal light source and are simply composed of discarded glass shards topped with wooden shelves made from old beams.
      If they require more light, guests have to place their phone on this ledge with the flashlight on, funnelling light onto the glass shard through a narrow slit in the wood.
      It takes over Eindhoven’s artists’ residency and restaurant Residency for the PeopleThis reflects and refracts light around the space while revealing various crescent moon shapes engraved into the glass in a nod to the circadian rhythm.
      “It’s really about our dependence on the constant supply of energy,” Troeman said. “Can we embrace the dark and hence be more environmentally friendly? It has benefits for everyone and everything.”
      Exploring more circular forms of exchange was also on the agenda at last year’s Dutch Design Week, when designer Fides Lapidaire encouraged visitors to trade their own poo for “shit sandwiches” topped with vegetables that were fertilised with human waste.
      The photography is by Jeph Francissen unless otherwise stated.
      Dutch Design Week 2023 is taking over Eindhoven from 21 to 29 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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      Neri&Hu divides Shanghai fashion boutique with fabrics and marble screens

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      Chinese studio Neri&Hu has completed a store interior for Ms MIN in Shanghai, China, to showcase the fashion brand’s diverse use of materials.

      Located at the Taikoo Li shopping complex in central Shanghai, the 195-square-metre store was designed to evoke a sense of traditional home-based atelier that places materials and craftsmanship at its centre.
      Neri&Hu designed the store in Taikoo Li”Before the Industrial Revolution, textiles were made by hand in villages across China by individual families; carding, spinning and weaving all took place in farmhouses, indeed a loom could be found in every well-conditioned homestead,” Neri&Hu explained.
      “We harken back to the notion of a traditional fabric atelier, showcasing craftsmanship, rich materiality, and a domestic sensibility.”
      White fabric sheets were hung to divide the spaceThe space was divided into several zones by a series of floor-to-ceiling open grid wooden structures.

      White fabric sheet was hung in between a wooden grid to serve as lightweight semi-transparent partitions situated on left and right side of the shop. These were designed to allow plenty of natural daylight into the store.
      “Natural daylight and the chaos of the shopping mall are filtered by the sheer fabric screens, giving the space an overall sense of calmness,” Neri&Hu said.
      The flexible panels can be re-arranged and interchanged with different materialsThe same wooden structures with overhanging eaves to the right side of the shop form a series of more private rooms.
      These are used as a reception at the front of the store along with a VIP lounge, VIP fitting room and studio area at the rear of the shop.
      An internal courtyard was formed that can accommodate exhibitionsThe central display area was arranged by a series of panels, either made with micro-cement or marble and framed in brass, which form an internal courtyard that can be used as an exhibition space.
      These panels can be re-arranged and interchanged to suit the changing fashion trends in motifs every season.

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      The entire shop was paved with curved roof tiles stacked and inlaid, a traditional pavement commonly found in the region.
      Neri&Hu also created custom mannequin figures for Ms MIN. According to the studio, the linen-made mannequins have a skin-like subtle texture.
      The lightweight semitransparent partitions allow natural daylight into the shopNeri&Hu was founded by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu in 2004 in Shanghai. Other recent interior projects completed by the studio include cafe brand Blue Bottle’s latest shop and a flexible office space, both in Shanghai.
      The photography is by Zhu Runzi.
      Project credits:
      Partners-in-charge: Lyndon Neri, Rossana HuAssociate-in-charge: Sanif XuDesign team: Muyang Tang, Zhikang Wang, Amber Shi, Yoki Yu, Nicolas FardetLighting: Viabizzuno (Shanghai)Contractor: Shanghai Yali Design Decoration Co.

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      Yama fishmonger in Tel Aviv was designed to display fish “like jewels”

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      Israeli architecture studio Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects has created Yama, a fishmonger in Tel Aviv with a sculptural interior that was informed by jewellery stores.

      The studio completely renovated the space, adding a sculpted ceiling that was designed to “create a ship-bottom-like formation” to underline the connection to the sea.
      Yama is located in Tel Aviv’s Florentin areaYama – which was named after yam, the Hebrew word for ocean – features a display area for showcasing fresh fish as well as prepackaged ready-to-cook dishes made by its owner, chef Yuval Ben Neriah.
      The display counters were designed to resemble the shape of a fin and have an all-white finish that contrasts with the fishmonger’s colourful walls.
      A red refrigerator holds drawers full of fishFor one wall, Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects created a bespoke clay-red drawer refrigerator that holds prepackaged goods.

      With the brief to “redefine the shopping experience that customers are accustomed to”, Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects designed the interior to emphasise the value of the product being sold.
      The fish is displayed like gems in a jewellery store”We suggested that rather than working with quantities and nonchalant arrangements of the product with the preparation of the fish being exposed, we wished to emphasize the values of the product within an elegant setting,” studio founders Irene Goldberg and Sigal Baranowitz told Dezeen.
      “It is this aspect of the carefully set display that promotes the value of what is presented, very much like jewels in a jewellery store.”
      Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects gave the fishmonger a sculptural ceilingSteel shelves in the same red hue as the refrigerated drawers hold delicatessen food that goes with the fish.
      The studio chose the colour palette to nod to the graffiti-covered walls in the surrounding area – the up-and-coming Florentin neighbourhood in southern Tel Aviv.

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      “The colour palette is light in its essence, consisting of white and warm grey,” Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects said. “It is only the drawer refrigerator and display shelves that bring in the deep and vivid colour of clay-red.”
      “The purpose of the colour was two-fold: to create an assertive and strong backdrop of the central island and to recall the vitality of the downtown neighbourhood it is located at, with its graffiti art walls and vibrant young population.”
      The red-and-white interior references the surrounding neighbourhoodDespite designing the store to have a high-end look, the studio used deliberately simple materials as a contrast.
      “To balance the experience and merge with the vivid alive-and-kicking neighbourhood the store is located in, the finishes and materials selected for the store are not particularly high-end,” Baranowitz and Goldberg said.
      The architects used simple materials for the interior”On the contrary, most of them are simple in their essence and consist of concrete flooring, plaster and paint-finished metal,” the duo added. “The heart of the store is constructed in stone to elevate the display of the fish specifically on the central island.”
      To further underline Yama’s connection with the ocean, Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects added a decorative coral motif to the door handle leading into the fishmonger.
      The studio said it always designs bespoke door handles for its projects since the entrance is “the beginning of the story”.
      The door handle was given a decorative detail”For Yama, which has a very clean and pared-back design, the door handle is the only part that was given a decorative motif,” Baranowitz and Goldberg Architects said.
      “We used the graphic design motif that was developed by Anaba studio for all the packages in the fish shop,” the studio added.
      “The graphic element reminds [us of] elements from the sea, coral reef indeed, which also reminds us of seawater. We like to combine existing elements, it is part of a story of the place.”
      Other recent Tel Aviv projects include an indoor playground with tree-like columns and a pair of apartments with trees growing through the facade.
      The photography is by Amit Giron.
      Project credits:
      Architects: Irene Goldberg and Sigal BaranowitzLighting design: Orly Avron AlkabesStone Work: Fervital

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      Traditional Korean pavilions inform open-sided Aesop store in Seoul

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      Skincare brand Aesop has collaborated with designer Samuso Hyojadong to create a store in Seochon, Seoul, that features an open facade and an oversized stone plinth.

      Positioned in one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Seoul’s Jongno-gu district, the Seochon outlet was created to “fit harmoniously within its local context”, according to Aesop’s design team.
      Aesop designed the Seochon store with Samuso HyojadongWhen designing the store, Aesop and Hyojadong took cues from the architecture of jeongjas – traditional Korean pavilions with no walls, which serve as spaces for resting and taking in the surrounding views.
      The street-facing facade was created with mesh metal screens that can open out entirely to create a storefront with no walls. Once closed, the woven metal backing creates translucent windows through which passersby observe the softly lit silhouettes of uniform rows of bottles.
      Reclaimed timber features on the interior”Samuso extended the floorplate outwards to create a threshold that conveys a generous sense of hospitality,” the Aesop design team told Dezeen.

      “One [jeongja] in particular that inspired us was the Soswaewon in the Damyang region, which was built in the sixteenth century and is surrounded by a verdant garden.”
      An oversized stone plinth displays Aesop productsFor the store’s material palette, the designers referenced the timber and stone that are typically used to build traditional Korean houses known as hanoks.
      A large, rough-edged stone plinth displaying clusters of products was positioned at the entrance while various wooden accents were created with timber reclaimed from salvage yards and an abandoned house.
      Copper was used to create geometric cabinetsThe store was also built on a raised stone platform, which nods to the traditional architecture.
      Hanji paper created from mulberry tree bark sourced from South Korea’s Gyeongnam province features on the store’s walls, which frame central geometric cabinetry and sleek taps made of locally produced aged copper.

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      The designers were restrained in their use of sanding, sealants and coatings when treating the materials, opting to embrace their “natural imperfections”.
      “Sensitivity to texture in this store is superlative,” reflected the design team. “Samuso wanted each material to express itself directly, without too much human intervention,” it continued, referencing the roughness of the stone and the reclaimed timber’s undulating texture.
      The metal was also used to design sleek tapsRosewood was used to create the store’s signature fragrance armoire, which is hidden from view until opened out and was conceived as a traditional Korean jewellery box, according to the design team.
      “Throughout the store, we were compelled by a desire to dissolve the boundaries between inside and outside, between the naturally occurring and the human-made,” concluded the designers.
      The store’s signature fragrance armoire was informed by Korean jewellery boxesKnown for stores that pay homage to their varied locations, Aesop has an outlet in Cambridge defined by handwoven bulrush shelves that nod to the nearby River Cam and a Sydney store furnished with domestic items to evoke 1960s Australian homes.
      The photography is courtesy of Aesop.

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      Odami creates textured minty interior for Aesop Palisades Village store

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      Mint green materials cover this store for skincare brand Aesop, which Toronto studio Odami designed for the Palisades area of Los Angeles.

      The Aesop store opened at the end of 2022 in the Palisades, a verdant corner of the city northwest of Santa Monica where several seminal modernist houses are located.
      In the center of the store are stainless steel sinks for testing the brand’s products”Aesop Palisades Village takes inspiration from its natural surroundings, as well as the area’s vernacular architecture, where local buildings are delicately perched within a cascading landscape of lush ridges and valleys,” said Odami.
      “Most notably, this includes celebrated local architect Ray Kappe’s own residence, a critical reference for the project.”
      Planters with tropical foliage are placed behind the sink and along the side wallThe same shade of pale green is used across the walls, ceiling, floors, display stand bases, and a sink for testing products in the centre of the store.

      The velvet curtain and upholstery fabric is matched to the microcement surfaces, resulting in a monotone texture throughout the small shop.
      Textured microcement surfaces and velvet curtains match to create a uniform effectBehind the full-height curtains, Aesop’s distinctive brown bottles are presented on shelves built using reclaimed walnut wood.
      The dark wood is also used for countertops, individual shelves, and a storage unit that sits below a large product display set into one wall.
      The mint-green curtains open to reveal more products displayed on reclaimed walnut shelves”Gently placed amongst this unfolding landscape, the various storage and display requirements are resolved as long horizontal planes, composed of either reclaimed wood or stainless steel, to create an interplay of levity and mass,” Odami said.
      The sinks, which are lined with stainless steel, face a planter brimming with tropical foliage – a feature repeated perpendicularly along the adjacent side wall.

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      A skylight above the flora brings in extra natural light into the space, while a low bench offers customers a place to sit and pause.
      “Together, the design for Aesop Pacific Palisades aims to create a biophilic environment, elevating the ritual of self-care through the presence and evocation of nature,” said Odami.
      A bench is provided for customers to sit and pauseThe Toronto studio was founded in 2017 by Spanish architect Aránzazu González Bernardo and Canadian designer Michael Fohring.
      The team has completed a wide range of projects, from residential and restaurant interiors to a furniture collection, as well as another Aesop store located in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood.
      The store is located in Los Angeles’ Palisades neighbourhoodAesop is renowned for the interiors of its stores, which each have a distinctive design relating to their location.
      Recently completed include an outpost in London’s Marylebone that’s organised to reference a bookshop, and another in Cambridge, England that features handwoven bulrush shelves.
      The photography is by Rafael Gamo.
      Project credits:
      Client: AesopDesign: OdamiGeneral contractor: Precise Contractor IncFabrication: Dayone DesignsArchitect of record: WORD Design x ArchitectureEngineering: RKM Consulting Engineers Inc

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      “Fashion meets art and design” at Pittsburgh boutique by NWDS

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      Global team NWDS took a spontaneous approach to designing the Tons fashion boutique in Pittsburgh, which contains a mix of modest materials and iconic furniture pieces.

      The Tons store in the city’s East Liberty neighbourhood occupies a long, narrow building with its shorter side facing the street.
      The Tons store features a variety of “mundane” materials, including concrete breezeblocks and metal cansFormerly an atelier, the two-storey structure was reimagined by NWDS to create a light-filled destination “where high-end fashion meets art and design”.
      “Inside is a spacious and light-filled interior that now hosts a multifunctional venue designed to meet the needs of a modern-day sartorialist equally interested in fashion, art, and culture,” said the group.
      In the lobby, new apparel collections are displayed below a tapestry-like artworkDesigning the interiors of the 400-square-metre space involved dividing up the floor plan into several distinct areas that all flow together, but serve different purposes.

      Throughout the various retail and office areas, a selection of unexpected materials were combined and layered.
      Some of the walls are splashed or streaked with white paintImmediately through the glass front door is a lobby where new collections are presented.
      Here, product displays were built from concrete breeze blocks, while the upper walls above the clothing rails were dressed in transparent plastic curtains.
      Glass panels are used to partition different retail areasThe ceiling above was covered with metal tubes of different lengths and diameters, and gives way to a double-height space where tall tapestry-like artworks by Sasha Brodsky hang over opposite walls, and white paint was seemingly dragged across another.
      “There was a lot of spontaneity and many design decisions taken on site: some surfaces were uncovered and left in an unfinished state, and some were splashed with white paint,” NWDS said.
      A selection of iconic furniture designs can be found around the store, including Frank Gehry’s Wiggle ChairFurther along, fitting rooms are lined up behind black and white streaked partitions to one side, facing a room defined by glass panels that hosts monobrand products.
      Towards the back, a lounge area that also displays shoes is reached by descending a short flight of stairs, which run parallel to a raised, built-in seating area.
      A built-in seating area at the back of the store overlook the sunken shoe roomThe lower floor level in this space results in a higher ceiling, which NWDS took advantage of by extending a mural the full height behind a wall-mounted shoe display.
      A staircase at the very back leads to the upper storey, where retail displays and office areas for store employees sit side by side, and a photography studio is in full view.

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      “Inside Tons, the client space and the workspace are blended,” said NWDS.
      “Buyers and managers have their work desks right next to the sale rails on the first floor, and store visitors are welcome to take a peek at the fashion photo shoot happening right there at Tons.”
      The unfinished aesthetic continues across the upper storey, where retail and offices spaces are blendedThroughout the store are a selection of iconic furniture pieces that continue the theme of unexpected materials and functionality.
      They include metal-mesh Hi Tech armchairs by Piero Lissoni, a Mate chair by (A+B) Dominoni, Quaquaro that doubles as shelving, and Frank Gehry’s compressed cardboard Wiggle Chair for Vitra.
      “An interior comprising modest materials is a backdrop for high-end Italian furniture pieces, a collection carefully curated by the NWDS team,” said the designers.
      An open photography studio allows shoppers to watch shoots as they happenNWDS was established in 2013 as a team of architects, designers, curators and researchers from cities including New York, Tbilisi, Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Yerevan, Lisbon and Dubai. The group’s projects span residential, retail, hospitality, culture, exhibition design and more.
      Other recently completed boutiques that feature unusual materials include the Boyy flagship in Milan, which reveals layers of the store’s history, and a Parisian jewellery store featuring rippled sheets of acrylic.
      The photography is by Ekaterina Izmestieva and Alexandra Ribar.
      Project credits:
      Design concept: NWDSSupervision and project management: Brnz BureauLighting design: Natalia MarkevichArt: Sasha Brodsky

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      Crosby Studios uses steel kitchen equipment to create Berlin jewellery store interior

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      A faux industrial kitchen and yellow camping furniture feature in this store in Berlin by Crosby Studios for jewellery brand Avgvst.

      The studio put the space together from scratch using repurposed furniture and fittings including office blinds, camping chairs and kitchen equipment.
      The store’s colour scheme is dominated by grey, silver and yellowThe space is situated on the ground floor of a 19th-century building and retains a conventional glazed shop front. In contrast, the interior aims to distance itself from traditional jewellery stores.
      “The main idea was to create a new sense of retail in a non-traditional commercial way,” Crosby Studios told Dezeen.
      Cookers, storage and washing stations have become jewellery display casesThe store draws on the concept of a dark kitchen, a fast food outlet that provides food for deliveries and takeaways but doesn’t have a dedicated area for in-house dining.

      “We purchased all the steel appliances and shelving from the kitchen supply store in Berlin,” the studio said. “We needed sturdy stainless shelves with sliding drawers, which is why we decided to repurpose restaurant equipment.”
      Splashes of yellow animate the store’s interiorThe interior scheme is unified by its use of yellow paint, which is Avgvst’s signature brand colour.
      Yellow details at the front of the store include a kitchen sink, a rinsing tap with a coiled arm and numerous small display stands for jewellery.

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      The back of the space features yellow storage cabinets, curtains and foldable furniture, as well as yellow and green flowers and plants that soften the space’s industrial feel.
      “Yellow is associated with gold, which is reflected in Avgvst’s jewellery,” the studio said.
      Yellow details are picked out in display stands, seating, signage and wiringAside from the dominant use of yellow, other features include the space’s original exposed brick walls and wooden door lintels that have been lined with slats from repurposed office blinds.
      Foldable camping tables, chairs and stools are set up as permanent furniture to add to the interior’s playful atmosphere.
      Yellow flowers and green foliage soften the industrial aesthetic of the shopJewellery has been laid out on top of stainless steel equipment in the spots once dedicated to food preparation, replacing ingredients and dishes with high-end jewellery.
      To celebrate the store’s opening, Avgvst designed a range of pieces that mimic the shape of knives, forks and spoons.
      The tattoo studio is situated towards the back of the spaceAs well as a jewellery shop, the space houses a tattoo studio and a garden area.
      “The tattoo studio works as a pop-up space for the artists, whose style and aesthetics we like,” the studio said.
      “They make their own tattoos, as well as the flash sets inspired by the designs of our jewellery. The garden will host yoga classes, meditation sessions and pop-up dinners.”
      Other retail design projects published on Dezeen include a clothing boutique in Shanghai that incorporates oversized buttons and an Aesop store in London piled high with sage green books.
      The photography is courtesy of Crosby Studios.

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

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      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.

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      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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