Award-winning design practice HAS design and research has once again crafted a retail project that elevates the experiential and showcases product in a magnificent form. Simple Craft Collection is located in Hefei, China and was designed for Ligne Roset. Conceived as a museum and signature showroom, this project heroes the beautiful furniture pieces of the renowned French brand and transcends the idea of the ubiquitous retail environment.

HAS design and research was commissioned to devise something special for Ligne Roset – the project was to embody the company’s continuing product innovation and celebrate its spirit of modern design. With Simple Craft Collection, Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee, the founders of HAS design and research, have gained inspiration from the surrounding landscape of Hefei and reinterpreted it through the showroom design.

Hefei is in the province of Anhui and sits close to a tributary of the Nanfei River; the natural occurrence of floating frozen ice blocks during the winter months provided the perfect concept for the design of the signature Ligne Roset store.

With ice blocks of various sizes and shapes floating in the river along with the surrounding snowy landscape, Hefei becomes a wonderland in winter that has been translated into an ethereal and wondrous destination for furniture and design through this project.

Hung And Songkittipakdee (HAS) proposed an unconventional design for the showroom titled ‘Floating Icebergs’ and the idea encompasses the concepts of ‘ice freezing’ and ‘ice melting’. In considering the landscape, the Simple Craft Collection was conceived and becomes an abstract extension of the Hefei surrounds.

At 420 square metres, the white interior of the museum and showroom is dramatic. The entrance features nearly one hundred jagged ‘ice pillars’ that are both connected and disconnected, and positioned in a circle. Their form resembles ice shapes that are tall shards and they envelop the space. Cleverly, they also act as a barrier between the noise of the external environment while allowing light to filter through the various gaps.

Inside the space, and contrasting with the rigidity of the ice pillars, the interior becomes a continuous form that emulates the smooth merging of ‘ice melting’. This idea of smooth and jagged is inherent to the interior design and during the daytime, with nearly two hundred pillars within the interior, they establish a dual expression of jagged and smooth forms.

Triangular openings are hidden within the form of the pillars and this introduces natural wind from outside but also allows light and shadow to interplay on the smooth walls beyond. At night, and for special occasions, the openings and pillars are illuminated producing an extraordinary crystal effect on the floors and ceilings.

While the interior is a work of art, it is the furniture that takes pride of place on the floor. The characteristically curved forms of Ligne Roset pieces sit at home within the fluid spaces and become the centre of attention for visitors.

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Never creating the expected, HAS design and research has delivered a powerful statement for the retail environment. Simple Craft Collection is, of course, a showroom, but becomes part gallery space and part museum too. It becomes a place that displays furniture pieces and groupings within islands of an interior glacial landscape. There is a journey of discovery to be enjoyed within the walls of this project and the experience will excite and inspire every client and visitor.

As is usual with all of HAS design and research’s projects, Simple Craft Collection is an extraordinary interior that breaks tradition and pushes the boundaries of design further than the norm. Conceiving an interior that pays homage to the outside landscape inside is a masterful stroke and the vision celebrates the location in which this showroom resides.

In a city such as Anhui where concrete buildings abound and millions of people live and work, this project elevates the quiet consciousness of a spatial form that is both fluid and rigid. It is a magical and contemporary interior that provides a new and different environment to display a luxury brand that has stood the test of time for 160 years. Simple Craft Collection is where old meets new wrapped in a future of white and it’s fabulous.

HAS design and research was the winner of The Retail Space category at the 2023 INDE.Awards and was shortlisted in The Prodigy in the 2022 INDE.Awards.

HAS design and research
hasdesignandresearch.com

Photography
W Workspace

More retail design from the INDE.Awards with MuseLAB