The Steven Holl Architects designed store for Frédéric Malle Editions de Parfums opens today at 94 Greenwich Avenue in New York City. The 400sf boutique is an abstract insertion into the historic fabric of Greenwich Village. Inspired by an imagined geometry for olfaction, the interior and exterior are designed as an integral material and spatial whole.
The store’s new façade is characterized by a slipped disk geometry, a motif of two semi circles that is carried to the interior where it shapes the main cabinetry, the furniture, and the secret garden beyond.
This geometry is simultaneously textured, porous, and reflective, as seen in the foamed aluminum used for the façade, walls and ceiling. In the black walnut cabinetry, the two semi circles are dense, smooth and opaque. It is found in transparent form in the glass; and is soft and rough as the motif of the wool carpet.
In the Secret Garden, which is paved in schist, the gentle sound of water emanates from a cast brass fountain.