“To develop a spatial language, two previous temporary interiors were made. Spaces working with the idea of brand image and scale, and the hierarchy between the two. A shop, like architecture, is part of a hierarchy: from the building to the interior, where new hierarchies frame the product. Often, the more exclusive the brand, the more enclosed the interior; enveloping its values, repressing its surroundings and the building. These relationships interest me: Between object and behaviour, in the frames we build. For the BOYY store, certain parts continue to be about using these hierarchies and working with the transparency between the building and its location. The interior has some simple interventions, or inserts. They work separately, so these different elements connect to the space narrative in a different order.
In our previous iteration of space, the walls were in hand-dyed fabrics with ceiling light boxes above them - a space within a space. The fabrics are now re-used for the changing rooms, and the light box frames intercede the final layout. Transparency brings the location and the building inside; a row of aluminium frames, which use the building's previous wears and tears as esthetic images to its present situation, since our past is also a gateway to the future. The frames can be used as showcases, with the old walls visible as backdrops.
Another example is using the facade material (Ceppo di Gré) as part of the interior, a continuing line from the outside to the inside ending in a corner for clothing hanging on a coral iron rod, re-appropriated scrap metal bent and welded into a more sculptural form. The Ceppo stone shelving line is then cut by three blue powder coated metal vitrines, inserted in the stone. Another reappearing past element is the replacement of the one of the facade windows into a large curved mirror; a semi-transparent glass that from the outside mirrors and distorts the passerby, a reference to values (visible or not) and the inside; this same curved shape is downscaled to a smaller lamp, placed close to the end wall that has a large Douglas pine shelving that functions as storage.
Another feature on transparency is a patinated bronze pole on the facade, which sets a vertical sculptural line, breaking this ground floor facade line into the next floor. The end of the pole has a small light that gives a small spot on the facade’s upper floor. Also to note is the broken column in the centre of the interior space, kept from the restoration of the original space. I left this part, and made a ceramic table around it, connecting two genres; an architectural form to a design element merged into a singular object.
Lastly, a glass mosaic above the back door, made of leftovers from glass productions in Murano, brings warmth and echoes the vivid colours of BOYY’s collection into an otherwise cooler material space.’ FOS