Coffey Architects’ competition-winning shop window for Smeg
Coffey Architects’ winning design for the 2018 RIBA Regent Street Windows competition celebrates the launch of Italian cooking brand Smeg’s Linea built-in collection with a dynamic display at the company’s flagship London store. Through a hands-on process of iterative refinement, and close collaboration with structural engineer Morph Structures, the architect explored installation options that would both market the product range and promote the Smeg brand. The fabrication and installation was by Trick of the Eye.
“In line with Linea’s key features, we were encouraged to work with light reflection, refraction and shadow, both naturally and artificially. What resulted is a display that is engaging yet true to the company’s history and heritage in producing distinctive cooking appliances”, says project architect Ella Wright. “Creating intrigue and delight through threshold and repetition”, Coffey Architects drew on the Linea cast-iron pan stand to create an intricate patterned screen. “The multiplication of this heavy industrial component paradoxically creates a landscape that resembles a delicate weave, whilst showcasing Smeg’s rich heritage. It filters and diffuses light, casting beautiful, active shadows inside the store during the day and out onto the pavement at night.”
The installation is intended to blur the boundaries of the shop window through the use of layering, transparency, light and shadow. From a distance the screen reads as a single piece, but on closer inspection the pan stands are seen as individual components.
This is the eighth year of the RIBA-run design competition with Regent Street’s retailers and emerging and established architects to create installations in Regent Street and Regent Street St James’s shop windows. Coffey Architects’ display will run for a minimum of six months.
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