Posters pt.I
by Hanna Kokczyńska, Jacek Majewski, Michał Gratkowski
The interior of the Fumo store in Warsaw, Poland, was designed and renovated in express fashion. Only five weeks passed between the commission and the grand opening, all of it compounded by an exceptionally low budget.
A drugstore had previously made its home here and oil paint 'adorned' the walls while porcelain tiles concealed the floor. Under the tiles, we discovered old terrazzo and decided to expose it. This drove our subsequent selection of materials. We decided to use the most inexpensive, regular, "poor" materials immediately available at any builders supply, such as plywood, polycarbonate (PC), wood paneling and, finally, fiberboard and Styrofoam.
Excellent mirrors are one of the most important basics in apparel retail. We mounted a mirror covering the entire wall in a smaller room containing the changing rooms to enlarge the claustrophobic space and allow patrons to see themselves in the large reflection when they step outside the changing room.
The shelves disclose the plywood structure, a 20 cm block of layered plywood, which looks like a giant waffle. Accessories are displayed on the shelf and pieces of clothing hanging on a galvanized gaspipe and lighted hangers.
To achieve equal distribution of "photographic" lighting, we used a lighted ceiling. We found simple polycarbonate to be the best diffuser because of its channeled structure. Additional lighting accents include shelves with lighted hangers, unshaded fluorescent lighting in the room with a lower ceiling and warm halogen lighting in the changing rooms.
We remembered the kitschy hit of Polish block housing from the 1980s - cheap wood paneling. Its low price made it a perfect fit with this project, we simply needed to find a new context it would work in. We solved this by arranging the boards in a strong diagonal pattern, referencing current popular trends in graphic art.
A week before the grand opening, it became clear that the countertop and display islands would not be ready on time. We offered to make the furniture we designed and decided to use Styrofoam to do so. Inside the counter are shelves and drawers of fiberboard, while the countertop itself is lacquered fiberboard.
The project required us to also come up with a name for the store and design its graphic identification. Fumo is a nimble set of syllables that mean nothing in Polish though they intimate "I smoke" in Spanish (fumar- yo fumo). The name sounds great and evokes Spanish associations, as the majority of apparel sold here are the Spanish brands Skunkfunk and Desigual.
The interior of the Fumo store in Warsaw, Poland, was designed and renovated in express fashion. Only five weeks passed between the commission and the grand opening, all of it compounded by an exceptionally low budget.
A drugstore had previously made its home here and oil paint 'adorned' the walls while porcelain tiles concealed the floor. Under the tiles, we discovered old terrazzo and decided to expose it. This drove our subsequent selection of materials. We decided to use the most inexpensive, regular, "poor" materials immediately available at any builders supply, such as plywood, polycarbonate (PC), wood paneling and, finally, fiberboard and Styrofoam.
Excellent mirrors are one of the most important basics in apparel retail. We mounted a mirror covering the entire wall in a smaller room containing the changing rooms to enlarge the claustrophobic space and allow patrons to see themselves in the large reflection when they step outside the changing room.
The shelves disclose the plywood structure, a 20 cm block of layered plywood, which looks like a giant waffle. Accessories are displayed on the shelf and pieces of clothing hanging on a galvanized gaspipe and lighted hangers.
To achieve equal distribution of "photographic" lighting, we used a lighted ceiling. We found simple polycarbonate to be the best diffuser because of its channeled structure. Additional lighting accents include shelves with lighted hangers, unshaded fluorescent lighting in the room with a lower ceiling and warm halogen lighting in the changing rooms.
We remembered the kitschy hit of Polish block housing from the 1980s - cheap wood paneling. Its low price made it a perfect fit with this project, we simply needed to find a new context it would work in. We solved this by arranging the boards in a strong diagonal pattern, referencing current popular trends in graphic art.
A week before the grand opening, it became clear that the countertop and display islands would not be ready on time. We offered to make the furniture we designed and decided to use Styrofoam to do so. Inside the counter are shelves and drawers of fiberboard, while the countertop itself is lacquered fiberboard.
The project required us to also come up with a name for the store and design its graphic identification. Fumo is a nimble set of syllables that mean nothing in Polish though they intimate "I smoke" in Spanish (fumar- yo fumo). The name sounds great and evokes Spanish associations, as the majority of apparel sold here are the Spanish brands Skunkfunk and Desigual.