01
The Hall
A white stone hall under a hanging box of dark woven mesh.
Conceptual
C21 | Alexander Wang Stores
Location
Daoura, Lebanon
Type
Retail
Status
Concept design
The idea
A dark woven box over a white hall.
A concept design for an Alexander Wang store in Daoura. The shop is one tall hall: a white stone floor below, a raw concrete soffit above, and between them a great box clad in a dark woven mesh that hangs over the room and holds the upper gallery. A runway image is set into its face, so the box reads as a screen from the entrance.
Low stone plinths and dark benches set out the ground floor, around a copper sculpture at the centre, with rails along the glazed wall. A stair with a copper handrail climbs between two walls of mesh to a mezzanine edged in mirrored copper, where the collection hangs against the light.
Material palette
Dark woven mesh
Hanging box and stair walls
Raw concrete soffit
Hall ceiling
White & grey stone
Hall floor
About the project
Under the box, up the stair, along the glass
From the door, the first view is of the box and the runway image set into its face. Walking in beneath it, the ground floor spreads out around the central sculpture, with plinths and benches to pause at. The stair then takes you up, enclosed on both sides, before releasing you onto the mezzanine. Displays continue along the glazing, where white counters stand beside the dark rails in full daylight.
Dark woven mesh clads the hanging box and the stair walls, a textured surface that reads differently as the light changes. Above it, the raw concrete soffit leaves the hall ceiling rough and unfinished. Underfoot, white and grey stone keeps the floor bright and reflects light up towards the mesh. Copper, on the handrail, the sculpture and the mezzanine edge, is the only warm metal. In this Daoura concept, the contrast between dark and pale does most of the work.
A fashion store design has to sell the brand from the street. In this Lebanon concept, the hanging mesh box with its runway image works as a sign seen from the entrance, and the tall hall underneath stays open so the whole collection reads at once. Low plinths and benches slow visitors down on the ground floor, and the enclosed stair turns the climb to the mezzanine into a moment of its own before the collection appears against the light. Keeping the palette to dark and pale, with copper as the only warm metal, lets the clothes carry the colour. The concept was drawn by IAIA's interior architects.
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