Image Credit : Photographer - Dianna Snape
Project Overview
The Eye Care project by ONA Architects saw the transformation of a derelict old terrace storefront with a narrow, almost cave-like interior, uneven walls, and rotten unsupported floorboards into an optical store like no other.
In a strategic departure from the typical harsh clinical aesthetic, ONA has created a sleek ultra-modern space that welcomes, calms and ‘wows’ the patient and merges function with aesthetics to create a smooth, seamless experience for client and patient alike. Through clever manipulation of form, space and lighting; smooth white, undulating walls and the stainless-steel backdrop and ceiling structure the space and showcase the eyewear and the store centrepiece – a Mint Ice hued Corian table that anchors the design and provides the service area and central gathering place.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
ANDY CHUNG - ARCHITECT
YANG HAN - SKP PROJECTS
Project Brief
The site is a two-storey heritage zoned terrace style storefront on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn (Melbourne), with a narrow width of 4.5 metres, high ceilings and a run-down, derelict interior.
The brief was to design a unique optical store offering a memorable retail experience that resisted the conventional harsh clinical aesthetic of such spaces with their cold detachment, glaring lights and hard lines. The space was to inspire a sense of wonder and calm, highlighting the importance for the client of both doing and being in the space, and harnessing the experiential dimension to connect doing and being in a seamless whole. The design was to include an optical dispensing service in the storefront, a dry eyes treatment area and an optician’s assessment room at the back of the site, with the upper floor to be used as an office/private area.
Project Innovation/Need
The project demonstrated how store identity and consumer experience could be maximised through the careful selection of materials and colour in the context of a site with significant structural limitations. Thoughtful and strategic use of controlled lighting, texture and colour creates a gentle, calming, non-clinical ambience.
Concealed lighting through incisions in the white curved walls accentuates the qualities of the frames on display and draws the consumer’s attention. The existing features of the space, such as the narrow high walls, were harnessed and translated into key features of the design, such as the softly curving white walls, with industrial stainless-steel panels on the ceiling creating a contrasting shine.
Shape, finish and texture were also used strategically, such as the use of a central table serving multiple purposes as a gathering place and counter. The material selected for the table was Corian Mint Ice, chosen for its luminous and translucent quality to draw the eye as a focal point and striking centrepiece. The design played with the visual experience of the store, creating the impression of a portal when the storefront is viewed from the street. At the back of the store, a redesigned staircase with new timber treads and matt black walls leads to a waiting room with grey floor tiles rising vertically to meet a long bronze mirror, offering a soothing and relaxing experience for the consumer, bringing a new experiential dimension to the typical functional experience of similar spaces.
Design Challenge
The pre-existing condition of the site was extremely poor, with uneven and leaning walls and rotten floorboards that did not sit on any structure but had soil underneath. Various steps had to be taken to address these issues, with the whole interior first concreted to make everything level and steel frames installed to line and level up the walls. Stainless steel panels were used to conceal fixing to achieve a smooth effect. These heavy panels had to be screwed from the top of the metal frame and this was extremely time-consuming. The 3D curved walls curved in multiple directions and great precision was required in their construction. The sourcing of the Corian table was only just possible as it was one of only a few pieces remaining in Australia.
Sustainability
A central aspect of the design is the use of controlled lighting with LED fittings. Compared to traditional optical stores with greater energy demands arising from the harsh clinical lighting, this design allows for lower energy consumption from lighting.
Interior Design - Retail
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
More Details