SONGZIO FLAGSHIP PARIS — Retail Design
A Neo-Brutalist flagship store for South-Korean brand, Songzio for their first permanent step in Europe.

The South Korean fashion house, Songzio, opens its first Paris Flagship Store in the heart of Le Marais. Located in Rue Charlot, Songzio’s Paris Flagship Store uniquely converges Parisian Classicism with Korean futurism. Designed by Jay Songzio, the brand’s creative director, and HYPNOS XP, a renowned architecture office based in Paris, the store penetrates the Haussmanian street with a brutalist force.

The architectural concept is an embodiment of Songzio’s creative philosophy: Order Disorder. The coexisting dualism continues within the interior with a concept of order and disorder: symmetry and asymetry, light and darkness, curves and angles, mass and division, finitude and infinitude, bold yet peaceful, complex yet quiet, classical yet avant-garde.

The objective of the spatial design was to simplify and unify the 5 spaces which were spread across two buildings. A site-specific 7.5m concrete staircase was poured in place, linking the ground-floor and cavernous basement retail spaces, and the first-floor private office. Two further spaces within the annex of the building are linked by a communal passage, which private guests can explore SONGZIO’s exclusive runway pieces.

Within the interior, brut and textured concrete is paired with refined, black oakwood. In the ground floor, monolithic columns stand boldly, featuring carved-out recesses with indirect lighting and tied together with raw-steel bars. A leaning, angular wall cuts through the centre of the space, supporting a suspended jewelry draw. Carved in wall segmented by mirror panels display the designer’s sketches. A long-curved LED lighting bar softly engulfs the otherwise angular space.

The basement level is characterised by its vaulted, dramatic concrete steps, full height recessed LED video wall and oakwood sleepers suspended from the mirrored ceiling. Three further spaces can be found in an adjacent building, accessible by invitation through a back door. This private showroom is an extension of the main areas, but presents a wider range of products and differing displays, such as deep concrete shelves seemingly carved out of thick structural walls. A curved concrete wall, featuring a protruding stainless steel bar takes centre-stage, whilst a 3m tall multi-screen display wall makes full-use of the 5m ceiling and mezzanine. Up the steep steel staircase, a smaller and intimate space presents accessories and artworks linking to the collection.

A reduced material palette of only grey and black concrete, with black oakwood furniture allows visitors to focus on the products. Contrast is created, between the refined and perfected garments that suspend between brutalist, blocky and raw furniture. This was achieved by reducing the material palette to only two tones of grey and black, but which offer variation with a wider range of textures.