New nature is a collaboration project I worked on with a 3rd year Fashion Management student. The brief was to create a spatial and interior design for a new concept shopping/ leisure area, with the key demographic being males aged 25-40. The space would subtly market mental wellbeing to a sector that struggles to come to terms with these matters.

 

The brief also specified  that items should be visible at a glance as to make the shopping experience easier, with clothing displayed sparsely as the space would be used in conjunction with an app that allows to scan items to be sent to the dressing room and checkout. This meant unnecessary stock could be removed from shop floor.

 

I chose to use rammed earth as the key material for the structure of the space, with sandstone floors and porcelain stoneware for the display stand, cosmetics bar and checkout counter. The space is designed to accommodate 2 members of staff, one at the cosmetics bar that allows customers to casually discuss skincare and wellbeing products, and another who arranges the shop floor, takes products to the fitting room and assists at checkout. 

 

The design for the scheme was very much inspired by the CalEarth Initiative, as I wanted to create a village, that featured retail spaces, leisure suites, and spaces for talks, seminars and events based around mental health.