PENADES

As part of my second Camper Together project, this new pop-up store was installed inside the iconic Galleries Lafayette in Paris.

The project is based on olive wood coming from olive roots instead of regular olive planks. This specific type of wood has historically been overlooked by the wood industry due the risk of damaging carpenter´s machinery because very often the roots contain small stones inside them that can destroy the blades.

* Side note: I was born and raised in Málaga, a Mediterranean city in the very south of Spain. In this area, the only use that is given to this type of wood is firewood. Actually, we have a meal called <espetos> which consist on any type of fish or seafood clamped in canes and then cooked by sticking the rod in the sand next to a bonfire made out of olive roots.

I somehow managed to convince a carpenter to give it a go and we found a way to slice, flatten and transform the irregular olive roots into small olive planks by glueing short pieces together; those planks were then translated into 50 stools – a typology of object that make sense for a retail environment because they can perform a double function: seating objects and display elements for the shoes. This idea allowed us to significantly reduce the amount of furniture needed in the store.

Another layer of the project are the 360º mirrored hollow cubes. On the one hand they act as fitting rooms because when customers try their shoes on, they can use each of the four mirrored faces of the cube to see how they feel. On the other hand the cubes have two hinged doors so when the pop-up is not in use, the stools can be stacked and stored inside them, allowing the whole retail space to be quickly packed away, shipped and re-installed somewhere else, amplifying the life cycle of the project.

Finally, the stools have also been designed with same life cycle consciousness. They are made with just two components: the seat and the legs. In the event of deterioration we can unscrew the damaged component and replace it easily.