Studio

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001. SECTION OF A 17TH CENTURY MANOR HOUSE   002. RECLAIMED BOISERIE  003. OPEN OFFICE SCHEMATIC  004. SECTION THROUGH A ENGADINE FARM HOUSE






Our interiors set the stage for everyday life, providing us with the equipment we need for living. Whilst being grounded in this basic practicality, through theory, experimentation and meticulous attention they become imbued with an ineffable sense of being more than that. They shelter us from life outside whilst engaging with our contemporary moment; they allow us to rest whilst readying us for engagement. With our multidisciplinary approach, encompassing architecture, interior design and furniture design, we combine craftsmanship and theory to elevate the quotidian. Our designs seek to re-conceptualise space, organising and orchestrating the different elements in an almost choreographic way, each element improved by the application of thought as well as aesthetics.







2022-01

BONIA STORE, KUALA LUMPUR, COMPLETED 2022






Our principal idea behind this design was to create a museum-like white box containing a multitude of architectural elements to play with the visitor’s imagination. Stairs lead to nowhere, arches become entrances to shelves. The space is about fantasy. Not the traditional retail fantasy of transformative commodities, rather a totally unexpected and unknown relationship opens up between the visitor and the pieces within. The basic shapes of stairs, curves, arches, and nooks, once contained in the white box, transform into a museum collection, a collection of memories that each visitor will pair with their own to create a singular experience. The deliberately unsymmetrical layout encourages exploration, a sense of the unknown; a riposte to the uninspiring uniformity of replicated stores. A gridded ceiling above unifies the fragments into a total environment. Its’ glowing light casts a synthetic atmosphere to the store, emphasising the sense of it being a space apart from others. As with the contrasting fragments of architecture, differing aesthetics combine to enlivening effect. The rigidity of the grid and its resolutely modern connection to Italian radical design & Superstudio contrasts to the amorphous plaster organic niches, which in turn contrast to the regal Pierre Paulin like character of the seating nook, a calming moment of sumptuous luxury. And then another unexpected twist - a terracotta glazed screen facade referencing Asian Modernist architecture, anchoring this otherworldly space with a grounding connection to the local environment. Photography by Michele Yong.