When we were commissioned with the interior design of this jewelry store, we contemplated how to create a unique showroom that would possess both distinctive elements and an integrated unity, while providing an innovative space for visitors to explore.
The main concept of the design is as if thousands of years of gold discovery are revealed in a single moment. In response to the excessive and chaotic nature of neighboring shops, we created a dual contrast between glow and darkness, fuss and silence, cubic stone slabs with straight and sharp cuts, and organic cavities on rough surfaces and corners. It is as if along a narrow and dark corridor, the store’s walls have thickened, and irregular scratches on the stones become a platform for showcasing the products. It is a reflection of the realization of the discovery and mining experience in the architectural form.
Contrary to the crowded and halogen-filled traditional market jewelry showcases, a change in sales strategy has led the design towards offering a creative solution that relies on distinct, conscious, and jewelry-focused displays through lighting. It allows for the unique interpretation of each product by the audience. In the conventional sales system, customers would only see the jewelry behind the busy and compact showcases, and if they requested it from outside, the seller handed it to them inside the store for a closer look. However, our proposed design, similar to a gallery, provides a contemporary and direct solution to the relationship between the seller and the buyer. As a result, sculpted stones within cavities on the continuous walls of the store, along with the individual and sculptural middle stands, take charge of showcasing the products, and upon entering, users can freely and independently explore the presented jewelry, regardless of the staff.
On the other hand, the store’s stretched interior corridor serves as a linear axis for organizing the various sequence of public to private spaces. In the previous diagram of the store, an equal emphasis was given to the public and private areas, and the entrance and sales area aligned longitudinally with the service area (including the pantry, management space, and safe locker area). However, in the new design, the entrance hallway and product showroom, which constitute the more public layer of the project, extend maximally into the interior of the store, leaving extremely limited space allocated for the jewelry repository at the end. This means a condensation of the program while maintaining the order of the initial diagram and aligning with the strengthening of the original idea.
Considering the security issues, multiple measures were taken which can be categorized into two major areas. Firstly, the development of filters for the store’s entrance (including CCTV cameras, roll-up metal doors, and exit detection lights) and secondly, the protection of displayed items on the walls and stands (utilizing same-material covers on cabinets, attaching them to the display area through cables or light sensors).
Ultimately, it can be said that in this design, the organic nature of the deep underground mine is combined with the geometric order of human-made elements -as the characteristic of modern architectural spaces today- something between random organic shapes and a matrix grid.
