DDi - January/February 2011 - (Page 34)

34 | Right Light Lighting avant-garde Light and space define leading-edge architectural settings for two global retailers By Vilma Barr t the very top tier of environments for merchandising are a rarefied handful of stores that present architectural space and form first, with products as accomplices. They are sculptures encompassed by space, as in a museum exhibit. While the architectural concepts are sophisticated, the appeal is to a broad, tasteful consumer point-of-view. Two such examples are the Zara display in the Milan flagship on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, and the Ayres store in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both utilize lighting sparingly—and with precision—to dramatically enhance their sweeping artistic approaches to store design and merchandise presentation. For the Milan Zara store, designers transformed a former ’40s movie theater lobby into an architectural brand expression. Designed by Ben van Berkel of Amsterdam-based UNStudio, a 16.5-ft.high coated white aluminum hollow cone is the centerpiece of a temporary installation commissioned by Zara to coincide with the spring 2010 International Furniture Fair. The store, opened in 2001, was the first Zara store in Italy for La Coruña, Spain-based Inditex, which owns the brand. Positioned directly behind the entry from the street and in front of the interior window display, the cone-like structure opens at the top like a giant funnel. In elevation, the cone is split into four long, convex panels that overlap at the top. On the inside, the concave surfaces turn into the backrest of the seating surfaces that form the structure’s base. Lighting brings added drama to the attractive display, which features LED lighting by Erco that is programmed to change color and intensity during store hours. Lighting for the store’s interior windows, also by Erco, was designed to produce contrasts of light and shadow to A Zara, Milan Flagship Photo: Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman Architects lend dimension to the display elements. Ayres, a women’s apparel retailer, also uses lighting to create a multidimensional urban setting in its stores. For its 4,300-sq.-ft. store on El Salvador Street in Buenos Aires’ trendy Palermo district, Ayres retained Dieguez Fridman Architects to devise a distinctive visual strategy. With inspiration drawn from Buenos Aires’ lively population of 3 million, the designers decided to interpret the interior as an extension of the diverse pace of the city itself. “Just as cities are always in motion, with multiple surprises likely in any route, the store changes as people move inside it,” says architect Tristan Dieguez. To assist in implementing their theories in three dimensions for Ayres, the architects engaged lighting designer Pablo Pizarro, industrial designer Martin Wolfson and landscape consultant Cora Burgin. According to Dieguez, the initial concept is a bright white object that unfolds in curved and diagonal lines inside of a dark box that is constructed of floors, walls and a roof. The central staircase ascends diagonally across the shop interior leading down to the merchandise display, with lighting at tread level along one side. A ramp leads customers past a stepped display of mannequins posed on top of platforms, lit from beneath the risers, to a second selling area. Lighting defines the slope of the ramp at the lower edge along the handrail side. Fitting rooms, rather than individual enclosures, are a series of angled mirrors. “It becomes [a] game that involves shoppers, clothes and space,” Dieguez adds. Using unique approaches to lighting and architecture for their international retail spaces, both Zara and Ayres were able to create intriguing and captivating merchandise presentations with fresh perspective. To e-mail this article, visit www.ddionline.com/magazine. Ayres, Buenos Aires | Photo: Courtesy of UNStudio January/February 2011 www.ddionline.com http://www.ddionline.com/magazine http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - January/February 2011

DDi - January/February 2011
Table of Contents
From the Editor
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Quick Tips
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Swatch Shanghai
Printemps Paris
OPSM’s EyeHub
Sugamo Shinkin Bank
Right Light
Product Spotlight
GlobalShop Preview
Calendar
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Classifieds
Think Tank

DDi - January/February 2011