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This compact eyewear store in New York’s West Village has been divided into “on stage” and “backstage” areas, as part of a design studio Tutto Bene’s “love letter to theatrical glamour”. More
Design studio Tutto Bene looked to surrealist artworks and Italian modernist exhibition design when creating the interior for this eyewear store in Islington, north London.
Set in the Angel area, the 60-square-metre store belongs to eyewear brand Cubitts and features an interior concept conceived by Tutto Bene based on the architecture of the space itself.
A 1960s glass and chrome chandelier decorates Cubitts’ Angel store”It’s a long, slim room with an atelier atmosphere due to the strong contrasts of light and shadow,” the studio’s co-founder Oskar Kohnen told Dezeen.
“The atelier feeling immediately evoked a sense of being at an artist’s loft, this feeling of residential elements mixed with workshop-like rawness is what we wanted to embrace.”
Design studio Tutto Bene referenced art movements and artworks for the interiorTo underline this feeling, the studio added decorative pieces that nod to different art movements throughout the space.
“The individual elements of the store design reference surrealist artworks and Italian modernist exhibition design from the 1940s and 50s through play on perspective, rational spatial composition and painterly use of colour,” Kohnen said.
Green silk panels were placed along an entire wallA skylight lets plenty of light into the Cubitts shop, which Tutto Bene reflected via glass details placed inside the store.
“We didn’t want to over-complicate the dynamic of the space,” the studio’s co-founder Felizia Berchtold told Dezeen.
Tutto Bene references Streamline Moderne in tiny New York eyewear store
“Instead we placed monolithic elements within it that offer points of interest and grounding,” she added.
“Each element speaks a clear material language. There are hues of greens and yellow, the transparency of the nile glass, as well as areas of black that balance the space’s abundance of natural light.”
Glass details reflect light in the storeThe slim, rectangular store features glass shelves set against a backdrop of sage-green silk from fabric house Holland & Sherry along the entire right-hand wall, in another reference to art and artworks.
“The long shelf stretching the entire length of the space represents an artist’s easel, as well as exhibition tableaus,” Berchtold explained.
“The natural slubs and beautiful colour variation that the silk brings provide a reverent backdrop for the frames displayed on it, whilst being a quiet artwork in itself.”
A black volume stores custom-made framesAlong the left-hand side, Tutto Bene placed black storage and display volumes, as well as Cubitts’ eye-examination room.
Kohnen and Berchtold designed many of the furniture pieces personally for the interior, among them an undulating orange seat.
The store is located in Angel, Islington”Most elements are bespoke pieces we designed, including the Uovo chaise,” Berchtold said.
“Then there’s some vintage treasures such as the 1960s glass and chrome chandelier and a group of FontanaArte prism-like pieces that complement and contextualise our fixture designs, as well as photographic works by Lee Miller, casting the store through her surrealist lens.”
Tutto Bene has previously designed the interior of Cubitts’ first New York store as well as the steel-and-mirror Nightingale restaurant in London’s Mayfair.
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Design studio Tutto Bene drew on “the sombre elegance of theatre and museum lobby cafes” when creating the interiors for the Nightingale restaurant in London.
The 60-square-metre space, which opens to a courtyard in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood, references Viennese coffee houses, known locally as Kaffeehäuser.
“We thought London is missing spaces with the atmosphere that we know Kaffeehäuser for,” Tutto Bene co-founder Oskar Kohnen told Dezeen.
Nightingale’s interior draws on Vienna’s coffee housesNightingale’s “stage-like” dining room was also informed by “the sombre elegance of theatre and museum lobby cafes”, Kohnen said.
“Nightingale’s sloped ceiling, abundant drops of fabric curtains, as well as the curtain-like wall panelling play on this idea,” he explained.
The restaurant has a colour palette that emphasises green and cream colours, with a floor made of cement tiles in various green hues.
A pale green floor contrasts with white wallsCream-coloured walls and curtains contrast against silvery details, with a monolithic stainless-steel bar functioning as the room’s centrepiece.
“The courtyard plant life suggested the green colour,” studio co-founder Felizia Berchtold told Dezeen.
“Based on this we added light and shadow through layers of black and white,” she added. “The surfaces interacting with the daylight create an abundance of hues in an overall calm tonality. It’s simple but dramatic.”
Tutto Bene added a stainless-steel counter as a centrepieceMirrored, tiled columns add to the theatrical feel of the space, for which Berchtold also designed the sculptural Satellite Pendant, a spinning chandelier.
It was manufactured by the Austrian brand Kalmar, which has a history of designing lights for Viennese coffee houses, and features pleated cream lampshades that orbit around a steel axis.
Tutto Bene references Streamline Moderne in tiny New York eyewear store
“I initially drew the lamp during my travels in Japan last spring,” Berchtold said.
“It was inspired by paintings of sea roses and the craft of fan making, as well as ideas around motion and dance. We developed the design together throughout the year.”
Felizia Berchtold designed the Satellite Pendant lamp for the restaurantKalmar’s vintage glass scones decorate the mirrored glass columns, while Tutto Bene’s angular Sketch lamp sits on the wait station and its round Oblo lights can be found on the ridged walls.
The studio also worked with a variety of materials to give the space a tactile feel.
Nightingale features tables made from burl wood and stainless steel, which was also used for the bar and as a detail on the wait station, where it contrasts against swathes of cream cloth.
The studio also designed the furniture for the spaceTutto Bene’s Cafe Chair, made from stained wood and saddle leather, was used for seating along with wooden benches in the same style.
“The material palette balances crisp and formal materials such as steel and tiles with texture and playful warmth, resembled in the ever-changing drapes of fabric, the burl wood tables and saddle leather chairs,” Berchtold said.
Tutto Bene recently created a Streamline Moderne-informed New York store for eyewear brand Cubitts. Also in Mayfair, design studio Pirajean Lees designed an Arts-and-Crafts inspired restaurant called 20 Berkeley.
The photography is by Ludovic Balay.
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