Oct 10, 20193 min read

The Flip Flop

Updated: May 16, 2020

'The Flip Flop': Eyewear store for Opium by Renesa Architects

The new pop-up store designed by Renesa studio offers a clear spatial interpretation of the brand’s product identity at the Mumbai airport.

Welcome to the Chartreuse Vision !

Opium, a well-known premium lifestyle eye wear brand houses unique spatial elements set against a grid of time and space vividly illustrating Renesa’s bold design ideology. The project is a complex amalgamation of practical needs with a tinge of absurdness to catch and grab the moving "spec"-tators at one of the world's most busiest airports. This project is not merely about designing an optical store, it is to create an ambiance in which public and private spaces are deconstructed and placed in the same field to maintain a strong visual character resulting in an eccentric experience through a simple vision of color blocking.

In a retail space stacking multiple products, the ‘ways of display’ determine an impression of the space to a great degree. Thus, the intervention sought to conceive a visually attractive space, articulating the functional moments.

Starting with the arched entrance, framed by a stark neon sign of the brand, customers are guided through the one-way design that animates and illuminates the pop-up store. For a person passing by, the dialogue created between the design and store is that of an interactive component that invites the customers to delve into the store.

The design centers around a distinct and iconographic product presentation that allows different levels of interaction based on the client’s needs. Defined by its gridded pattern, the shelving units delineate themselves through the flip-flop. Each pair of glasses sits on its own mini stage exaggerated through a neon green accent. These shelves give the monotonic space a richer way of extension, allowing the customers to speculate the space and products with interest.

The process followed a grid of 8x4 inch tile that extends to the walls, flooring and furniture. The idea was to create a captivating store that conceptually references what eye wear does; tint or enhance the image.To incorporate this notion, the modules were repeated arbitrarily throughout the space to create complexity.These modules while curving in to the store were broken by neon green, mirror and collapsible shelves to create the illusion of recesses or volumes looming out from the walls. Thereby, articulating the language of design not only through repetition but also through recourse to everyday store typologies.

The curved line to which the design adapts and configures develops seamlessly continuing on to the cashier desk unit. The desk conforms to the homogeneity of the design centralizing and distributing the circulation of the store space by being located in the middle. Flanked on either sides by mirrors, a semblance of movement is created that emphasizes each display in a symmetric perspective.

The project is not merely about designing an optical store, it is to create an ambiance in which public space and private space are deconstructed and placed in the same field to maintain a strong visual character. The result is an eccentric experience through a simple vision of color blocking.

Project: The Flip Flop Location: Terminal 2 ,Mumbai International Airport, Maharashtra ,India. Firm: Renesa Architects

Website: https://studiorenesa.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renesa.architects/ Design Team:

• Sanjay Arora - Founder| Principal Architect

• Sanchit Arora - Studio Head Architect| Concept Design Head/Sketches/Graphics

• Vandana Arora - Interior Designer| Decor Head

• Virender Singh- Studio Technical Head

• Akarsh Varma - Architect

• Jagdish Bangari - Architect / Graphics

• Aayush Misra - Architect

• Prarthna Misra - Architect / Graphics

• Tanushi Goyal - Architecture Intern