The project is the brand’s first store. Because it is a start-up there was only a small budget available to grant their wishes. They had limited resources but they wanted to make a statement. Next to that the interior should be inferior to the lamps that are displayed. Making a statement and at the same time be inferior, sounds as a contradiction. However, the implementation of the used materials made this happen. To make the interior inferior to the collection, the materials were selected for their natural soft colours and modest appearance. To make a statement and make the interior surprising, we implemented the commonly known materials in a different way. The bricks were transformed from façade to display, and the corrugated sheets were changed from roof to room dividers.
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Gold 🏆 Winner
International Interior Design Awards 2023
Light Matters
Retail Interior
Firm
studio SAAM
Designer
Maartje Wiemer, Judith ten Kate
Design Team
Maartje Wiemer, Judith ten Kate
Location
Maasstraat 59H, 1078 HD, Amsterdam, NL
Country
The Netherlands
Photographer/Copyright
©Adegfoto / Design: studio SAAM
Furthermore, there should be a route going through the store, instead of show casing everything at the entrance. You should feel invited to come in and take a look around. We used semi-transparent corrugated sheets to divide the store in different areas. The round shapes invite you to walk around and see what is around the corner. And because of the transparency the store is divided in a light and spacious way.
We had to think of a way to place the corrugated sheets in a way that the feeling of the whole space remains: We didn’t want the sheets to touch the floor or ceiling, they should be floating. With straining a thin cable from floor to ceiling and lace up the sheets, this became possible.
A meaningful or circular way of using materials is one of the important goals of our studio. We were motivated to make sure that the materials used, would be fit for another purpose after the lifecycle of this store. By only making two holes per sheet for the strings, the corrugated sheets remain almost entirely intact and stays fit to recycle. By fixating the cables with a cable tensioner, the whole thing is very easy to dismantle. Because of this the sheet, cable and cable tensioner can be easily re-used.
Another reason why we chose for the materials used, is that the materials are ready for use as they are. They don’t need to be treated or painted. In this way we also made sure that we could realise this interior with as little different materials as possible, to keep our footprint low.