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Grant/Fulton Recital Hall
HBNY (Parenthetical Space)
Hyundai Shops
Lusso
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Stadtbahnstation Rathaus-Süd/ LRT station Rathaus-SüdLusso
A jewelry store's interior recapitulates a diamond's journey from rock to ring.
Using the idea of a jewel as the basis for the design of a jewelry shop, VOID planning developed the Lusso jewelry shop in Seoul as a series of strata. Working in a tight floorplan, the architects had to maximize space for both the sales floor and a workshop.
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Just as gems are originally made from rough stones through time and delicate refinement, the architects’ design process also had to be developed step by step. Walls in the showroom are finished with layers of rough stone, inspired by geological strata expressing the origins of the gems. The conspicuous glass columns represent the birth of the gem from those rough stones. They are made with melted white glass in a special hand-made mold, and then trimmed by hand. The center partition is shaped in an arch, which then becomes the threshold between the workshop and the showroom. Since the entire area is only about 560 square feet, the architects did not want to waste even the space within this partition: three of its posts are made functional as storage, a counter, and a sink.
Most of the space is dedicated to exhibiting small pieces of jewelry, so the lighting scheme becomes key within the space. After much testing, the architects chose LED lighting for the displays. The coolness of its color maximizes the sparkling jewelry and produces less heat. They chose warm-colored mini CDM lights for each of the glass columns to balance out the coolness of the LED lighting. These strategies formally and programmatically unify the disparate elements into a coherent whole.
Formal name of project: Lusso
Location: Seoul, Kangnam-gu, Chungdam-dong 118-17, B1F-105, South Korea
Owner: Young-Eun Jo
Gross square footage: 52 M2 sq.ft.
Completion Date: May 2006
Total construction cost: $120,000 (USD)
Architect:
VOID planning
Seoul Kangnam-gu
Chungdam-dong 105-5, Korea
82-2-548-4512 tel.
82-2-548-4514 fax
www.voidplanning.co.kr
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