PLAYVILLE shop

Location           Sukhumvit 49 Road, Bangkok

Area                  15 SQM

Project Year      2018

Photographs     Ketsiree Wongwan

This tiny kid’s boutique is a part of an indoor playground, Playville, located in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Carrying through the playground’s design approach which included many aspects of the natural environment and looking for another natural substance that hasn’t been used elsewhere in the playground, we decided on using Stones and Pebbles as the conceptual drive of this small retail area.

Terrazzo was selected for its smoothness, surface covering quality that could follow any organic shape or form, as well as its embedded fine gravels and stone chips that creates a visually appealing architectural backdrop.

The proportionately large glass façade and translucent blinds bring in a considerable amount of natural light, illuminating not only the shelving & maple hanging rods display but also the terrazzo backdrop and fixtures, highlighting the finer texture and speckled color of the artisanal and natural material.

The irregular curvature and rounded form of pebbles were used throughout the design as a way of creating a soft, safe, and welcoming impression.

The terrazzo counters and the curved brass trims highlighting the terrazzo floor took on the pebble-like form to encourage a smooth circulation loop and a visual continuity between the central display cluster and the front display unit.

The central cluster, in muted shades of green and teal, is composed of two intersecting units, the taller unit serves as a reception desk and the shorter unit serves as the central display counter. The front display unit, in muted earth-tone pink, is the widest and the shortest of the three.

As there was a request to display the featured products in more than one possibility within this limited 15-square-meter space, an interchangeable wall shelving and hanging system was the apparent design direction. The powder-coated aluminum wall shelves could be removed, revealing the partially embedded brass support underneath them.

These supports are made out of brass rods, fixed in the terrazzo wall at a 45-degree angle and spread evenly in three rows. By themselves, they could be used as hooks for hanging, allowing for an optional suspended display arrangement.

Occupying the prominent back corner of the store is a composition of a floor-ceiling mirror wall with a rounded corner, reflecting the adjacent terrazzo wall with a similar rounded gesture and the main multicolor shelving display unit that all come together to set up a seemingly generous display corner.

The shelving display is made from intersecting thin vertical and horizontal aluminum planes with the vertical pieces being slightly angled. The six gradient shades of green and pink are carefully selected for each intersected plane to create a playful transformation of colors.