Laureates – "WAN Retail Interiors Award 2011"

“WINNER RETAIL INTERIORS – GREATER THAN 200 SQ.M.

Hermès entrusted the RDAI agency, with the design of a new space, singular and unexpected in Paris. An immense volume, empty. An impression more of space than of surface area. And now, after at the end of a project that added but did not take away, the Lutétia swimming pool, in the heart of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter of Paris, metamorphosed into the first Hermès boutique on the Left Bank.

The architectural project led by Denis Montel and the teams at RDAI mixes contrasts and complementarities. It was imagined more in terms of volume than surface area, in m3 more than in m2. In the end, it is an intervention both radical and astonishingly gentle.

Listed as a Historic Monument since 2005, the swimming pool built in 1935 has a strong architectonic character and a compelling identity, that of Art Deco – it is in the spirit of its age. After its closure, the swimming pool underwent varied and diverse uses and was transformed.

The challenge was to translate some of the values intrinsic to Hermès into space: heritage and modernity, savoir-faire and creation.”

To continue reading the article…

To view the shortlisted projects in this category…

(Source: World Architecture News)

“WINNER RETAIL INTERIORS – LESS THAN 200 SQ.M.

The World’s first bricks and mortar type foundry.Playtype is the physical manifestation of the brand’s established online font shop.

e-Types wanted to make a playtype.com in 3D. The third dimension is the physical experience of typography – a new dialogue with a wider audience about the significance of typography as an element of lifestyle.

The shop is a playground where we experiment freely with ideas that somehow relate to typography. What was a shop yesterday is a gallery today and may just be an exhibition opening tomorrow.

The interior is, a visible extension of typography and our products, taking its que from the black and white chequered and continues in a monochrome palette featuring oversized fonts on windows and walls.”

To continue reading the article…

To view the shortlisted projects in this category…

(Source: World Architecture News)