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Entwurf • Design balbek bureau, UA-Kiew/Kyiv
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +1
Bauherr • Client Wedding Group LR, PL-Warschau
Standort • Location Aleje Jerozolimskie 61, PL-Warschau
Nutzfläche • Floor space 417 m 2
Fotos • Photos ONI Studio, Polen
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126
BRIDAL FASHION STORE
IN WARSAW
Stone stores history, energy, time. Layer by layer, life
inscribes itself into the material. And perhaps love too.
The balbek bureau team reaches far into the universe and
deposits an entire galaxy of love stories on just 417 square
metres. The building client wanted to break away from
the standard aesthetics of bridal salons and thus gave the
planners universal design freedom.
M illa Nova is a boutique of the Ukrainian wedding- and evening
dresses brand that has been successfully representing Ukrainian
design in more than 50 countries for more than 20 years already. For the
new store in the Polish capital Warsaw, the designers drew inspiration
from the starry depths and infinite dimensions of outer space. Never-
theless, the Milla Nova showroom is still very much located in the real
centre of Warsaw, in the Lipinski Passage, in a historic building with an
elegant façade dating from 1899 on Jerusalem Avenue, which is one of
the city’s most important streets. The rooms designed here within the
building tell a kind of global love story. With the help of the magic of
the stars, a dream world of its very own was created. Stanley Kubrick’s
legendary film strip A Space Odyssey in Space from 2001 provided a
range of motifs and – as it were – infinite inspiration. The designers play
with and juggle associations – the delicate image of the bride blurs with
the rougher, extra-terrestrial landscapes. The atmosphere on the first
floor is reminiscent of desert surfaces on distant planets, where evening
dresses are mainly showcased. Barren landscapes of rock fragments,
stone slabs and massive pedestals paint a magical picture of an enchan-
ting fairytale world. The shapes of the objects and furniture merge with
the shine and smoothness of the screens, subtly referencing Kubrick’s
cinematic art. Inside the second floor, the wedding dresses are presen-
ted, inspired by the interiors of intergalactic spaceships – otherworldly
yet intimate and cosy. The colours and textures are soft and delicate,
differing only in nuance. Like planets orbiting the sun, the four changing
rooms revolve around the centre: the bride. One of the fitting rooms is
located in an oval, half-enclosed area – its contours are repeated by a
backlit mirror. The one and only focus of this room is the future bride.
Restrained and with clear spatial contours, it provides security and
weightlessness at the same time. The materials, objects, colours revolve
around the bride, creating a radiant stage for her. Sofas, like fixed stars,
invite you to hold on to them, to lean back, to take time to make the
“right” choice – ideally for all eternity.
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