{Some retail therapy to end the day with. Australian firm Akin Creative designed the first Melbourne

{Some retail therapy to end the day with. Australian firm Akin Creative designed the first Melbourne store of Dion Lee.} Simplicity is a cornerstone of the design, and the bare contours of  that simplistic structure are filled with elements that hint and intone, rather than declare outright, a retro futuristic appeal. "The design responds to the refined site context by introducing an element of luxury that is balanced with the raw and industrial. The play of geometric form & reflectivity is an important part of the spatial experience.“  Confines of the space are filled with mirrors, chrome, concrete floors, cinderblock walls, exposed air ducts, and zig-zagging transparent divides arranged in obtuse and abstruse angles. The interior is not gigantic but an amusement park hall of mirrors effect is combined with a carnivalesque maze layout that, when taking colors and lighting and materials into account, creates a personalized mystique sets Dion Lee in a category all its own.  Akin’s less-is-more mentality is matched by lead architect Kelvin Ho’s acute talent of filling out the store with just the right effects and materials to really give a unique shopping experience.  The “less” in terms of design translates into a “more” in terms of psychological appeal. In view of this, the store is by no means overdone. Quite contrarily, it’s what’s left unsaid, undefined, un-designed, that forms an implicative subtext whereby a futuristic appeal is inferred. The luxury that Dion Lee obviously champions is measured against an architectural half-completedness, rendering the retail outlet an intentionally fabricated construction site that is more “20 minutes into the future” than “midtown Melbourne.” The distinctly urban feel to the interior bares heavily on shoppers’ impression, offsetting their senses with aspects of awe and wonder that entice and delight–and that delight is crucial from a stylistic and aesthetic viewpoint as much as a sales and marketing viewpoint. -- source link

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