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Entwurf • Design Casper Mueller Kneer Architects
Bauherr • Client Self-Portrait Ltd
Standort • Location 49 Albemarle Street, UK-London
Nutzfläche • Floor space 233 m 2
Fotos • Photos Paul Riddle
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 110
SELF-PORTRAIT STORE
IN LONDON
Noble sales rooms for upscale brands and quality exhi-
„The stacked columns are a geometric bition areas for high-quality art: Casper Mueller Kneer
play, something light hearted. We enjoy are known for designing with a clear line and just a few
but expressive motifs. For the first autonomous store of
how the material softens these shapes.“ a young English fashion brand, the architects based in
London and Berlin developed a design concept consis-
Casper Mueller Kneer ting of bizarre geometries which can be replicated.
O ne of the most popular subjects of our vain time is the self-por-
trait: Every day, approximately 93 million selfies are taken
worldwide. When the former art student and present-day fashion de-
signer Han Chong established his own label in 2013, he decided that
Self-Portrait would therefore be a good brand name for his clothes.
His fashion is to call for self-love and self-staging, it is expressive, de-
liberately sensual and extroverted. On two storeys of a townhouse
from the late 19th century and consistent with these characteristics,
Casper Mueller Kneer implemented a store design which emphasizes
the extravagance of the brand and will serve as a model for additional
branches in the future. Striking, repeated stylistic means are so-called
“odd geometries” – strangely geometrical types –, which are found in
the layout as well as in several details. On the ground floor, presenta-
tion screens designed as segment of arches and consisting of metal
rods circular in cross-section suggest a flowing passage whereas the
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan sales area on the lower level has a triangular shape produced with
partitioning walls. The perfect circle dominates in the form of oversi-
zed, circular mirrors and columns. Massive, partly squashed cuboids
are suspended at the columns in quite a sculptural, almost cubist
manner. The geometry of the deformed rectangle is repeated in the
two-colour inlays of the terrazzo floor whose tangential repeat con-
trasts the strictly linear grid structure of the ceiling. As a seemingly lu-
minous area, the ceiling combines all these room sections from above
and makes the powdery-drab colour world look quite cool. In addi-
tion, directed spotlights and illuminants integrated in the presentation
furniture stage the displayed goods. Some smooth surfaces are above
them juxtaposed with the rough texture of clay-rendered walls, below
them with the dense fabric of a deep-pile carpet. All things conside-
red, the unconventional, plain design provides the scenic setting for
Chong’s frilly clothes. Here and there, however, intimate but well illu-
minated niches as well as selfie-suitable background motifs have de-
Grundriss Untergeschoss • Basement floor plan finitely been created.
AIT 1/2.2021 • 085
