The studio for interior design atelier tao+c designed a store for the young brand “Momic” in the megacity Hangzhou in China
Their interior design for the showroom is reminiscent of the “retro-futurism” from Stanley Kubrick’s films, the designers write. It is a store for the still young watch brand “Momic” (Moments of Magic), which naturally wants to set a recognizable sign with this design. The store is located in the Chinese city of Hangzhou (Zhejian province). The architects were Tao Liu, Chunyan Cai, Haojia Song, Lin Guo from the design office atelier tao+c.
Radically unusual is the wild mixture of colors, forms and above all materials they chose: there are actually no sales counters or presentation cabinets as we know them; instead, in the room with 96 m² surface area, there are very different objects, this attached to the wall, placed on columns or seemingly floating freely in the room.
All of this is reflected in the mirrors on the ceiling, so that one might think one is dealing with confusion times two.
But confusion is not the right word, because it means confusion and uncertainty. The script for the way through the “Momic Watch Assembly Store”, however, defines exactly the points that the customer is supposed to go to, using design islands:
* the almost free-floating round in blue metal is the area of watches for the male clientele and stands for industrial development;
* the areas with different types of marble appear compact and reliable and symbolize building, tradition, but also art and business; there you will find the watches for those interested in sports, art or smaller products;
* Acrylic stands for futurism: hung on the wall and colored bright red are those shelves where the clocks with special colors can be found;
* Blue and grey define the simple rectangle of the sales counter where customers can serve themselves and where the cash register is located;
* The grey, transparent plastic cuboid that reaches down to the floor provides space for the watches from the Minimalist collection;
* for brand new products, there is a volume with small-format tiles, like those formerly found in bathrooms. However, here too the material is high quality, namely white marble with fine veins.
Behind the design is a precise sales calculation: on the one hand, the customer’s own feeling should guide him to the products; on the other hand, the size of the horizontal presentation areas has been chosen so that the usual movements required when buying a watch can be carried out in the best possible way. This also applies to the height at which the presentations are located, the architects write in their press release.
Very much in the style of postmodernism, there are many references to many styles: there are numerous marble columns, as we know them from past centuries; however, they are not really made of solid stone, but only covered with it. The same is true for columns with metal cladding.
According to the architects, the solidity of the materials that is played to the foreground here is intended to make the dimensions of space and time recognizable to the visitor.
Materials: marble (Dark Green, Persian Gold, Rosso Lepanto, Ariston White), colorful acrylic, polycarbonate transparent board, artificial stone, tile, highlight lacquer, stainless steel.
The stone work was carried out by Shanghai Hengguan Construction.
Photo: Wen Studio
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(28.12.2020, USA: 12.28.2020)
