CANADIAN INTERIORS
Grafic for Men, Woodbridge, Ontario
Johnson Chou, Toronto
Best Of Canadas Designs
This 1,500-square-foot menswear boutique in the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge appeals to shoppers of diverse age groups, embodies the Italian client's Old World notions of customer service, and showcases an innovative, easily reconfigurable custom merchandise display system.
In Johnson Chou's design concept, the space is a pristine container enclosing four discrete, stainless steel-dad forms with shapes derived from their function. The forms are deployed to generate a sense of tension and enhance the sense of movement throughout the store. At the entrance, a stainless steel-clad "tube" with a lowered ceiling defines the cash area. Aligned as if extruded from the storefront glazing, the tube initiates an intimately scaled introduction, its depth generating a proscenium effect that focuses and frames the view of the boutique from the street.
A walnut-veneer display wall along the length of the store divides it into
unequal halves, the larger for casual wear and the narrower for exclusive
labels. Storage racks above the fixturing system are sufficiently commodious that the owner was able to accommodate a downsized storage room, freeing up more floor space for retailing. By confining merchandise display to this interior partition, the walls were able to remain clean and unadorned. Such a move carries luxury cachet in retailing, where revenue-generating clutter tends to prevail. A rectangular vessel perpendicular to the display wall at the far end of the store contains the fitting rooms and lounge. Chromogenic glass along the fitting rooms is clear when the doors are open and opaque when they are closed. In its opaque mode, the glass doubles as a screen for projecting still images or videos.
