A design for a small shop with a large window – or, rather, a large window with a small shop.
When the cashmere label Studio 163 approached us to design a shop for the brand, we felt that more than an interior design, what was really at stake was a stage design. Given its limited size, the store had to operate as a display window and as a functional interior simultaneously.
The inhalation of classical Roman theater backdrops, stage designs by the Galli da Bibiena family, Piranesi’s grotteschi, as much as Imi Knoebel’s Room 19, resulted in a spatial construct slotted between the two sidewalls. The fake vanishing lines of the geometry, as well as the openings in the structure suggest more depth than the tiny space actually has. At the same time, the object serves as both display and counter, incorporating a changing room, a hidden cabinet and a moveable container. As an open stage for those shopping and the shopped, it does not dictate specific arrangements, but is perpetually (re)populated by the seasonally changing collections.
