Image courtesy slo.vis & et al. collaborative

Kee's Chocolates has established itself as a premier destination for chocolate in NYC. After nearly ten years as a neighborhood staple, Kee's has commissioned Architects slo.vis and et al. collaborative with a complete redesign of the Soho store.

Image courtesy slo.vis & et al. collaborative

A vertical wood panel system lines one wall from floor to ceiling. A series of offset wooden slats create a continuous texture from the front to the back of the store and provide storage spaces for chocolate boxes, located just behind the display cases. As the wall turns, the pattern continues, however the back substrate of the wood slats begin to disappear allowing light and air to pass through. Five pendant lights illuminate the carefully curated display cases below.

An exposed brick wall on the opposite side leads the customers through the store to the displays.. Refrigerated display cases for chocolates and macaroons are clad in wood panels and laser etched with maps of the surrounding New York neighborhoods.

Image courtesy slo.vis & et al. collaborative

slo.vis and et al. collaborative began with several explorations of the design, ultimately finding that minimalism and use of natural materials proved to be a complimentary fit. "The challenge was creating a design that would match the quality of  the chocolate, without overpowering the understated elegance that Kee has established." says Susan Sloan of slo.vis Architects.

Image courtesy slo.vis & et al. collaborative

slo.vis was approached by Kee's Chocolates last year just as slo.vis was beginning construction on a residential project with fellow Brooklyn studio et al. collaborative. Noting the combined strengths of the two studios, slo.vis brought on et al. collaborative as a partner for the Kee's project.

The use of a city grid as a template allows an additional element of adaptability for future store locations should Kee's expand.

Manu Garza of et al. collaborative.

Layout plan, drawing courtesy slo.vis & et al. collaborative

slo.vis is a New York based architecture and design studio working within a range of scales. slo.vis' work includes includes a renovation of The Grace Institute and residential projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

et al. collaborative is a Brooklyn based architectural design practice with a strong emphasis on collaborative processes. The studio designs site specific projects with a cross-disciplinary focus. Their work has been featured by Oculus, core77, Fast Company & Wired.

TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE had a design of the entrance hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. Float in the air reception counter.

Image courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

Reception counter in the entrance hall of 4 companies share related to mobile communications. These companies have been developing software and hardware for the expansion of mobile communications in the future, while there are some elements that make a futuristic, connecting people together, We feel companies also do business that combines human element somewhere.

Image courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

We have designed the entrance hall while having such a futuristic image, an image that combines human, biological somewhere there.

This counter is the length of about 3m, but floating in the air out from the wall. We were the image of Stanley Kubrick “2001: A Space Odyssey”. To talk about something while floating in space, such as “monolith” that appeared in the movie, also speaks to visitors at the entrance hall reception counter.

Image courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

In addition, We were wearing bright colors like bright part of the Hall. It becomes a bright light into the pitch-black space, you can imagine the scene of the dawn. At this entrance hall this counter will talk visitor the expectations of people’s lifestyles and evolution of these 4 companies.

Image courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

This reception counter made of wood. Unlike the image of the near future “2001: A Space Odyssey”, like driftwood floating in the sea, we are told that it is also important to convey the culture of a foreign country far away by primitive way (for example, to talk face-to-face) .

Image courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

Drawing courtesy TRES-ARCHITECTS OFFICE

Mascotelos House, drawing courtesy ER Studio - Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto

The project of a dwelling house in Mascotelos sees on its terrain a conceptual opportunity as well as a circumstance to which it cannot escape: a narrow lot with a slope of three meters between the two fronts, in a relatively rural environment. The accessibility is solved in fronts, an automotive access to the ground floor and a pedestrian access to the highest stage of the northern front.

Mascotelos House, drawing courtesy ER Studio - Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto

To minimize the visual impact of the house to the landscape, while protecting itself from any visual noise from the surrounding lots, we develop an idea of the courtyard house. Where a staircase would be the route and part itself of a courtyard / garden sided to the house, establishing this one a close relationship between interior and exterior to it.

Mascotelos House - Ground floor plan, drawing courtesy ER Studio - Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto

Mascotelos House - First floor plan, drawing courtesy ER Studio - Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto

Thus is born a masas that seems to hover over a translucent plan, attached laterally this courtyard assumes himself as the center of the house. The entire ground floor is used for the public part of the house, here a succession of transparent spaces, culminating in the living room that can be open to and thus become part of the courtyard. Reinforcing the idea of a courtyard that makes the illumination and connection between spaces is materialized in a small courtyard between the hall, office and kitchen, subtly privatizing the first spaces from the rest of the house.

The top floor is intended for private domestic dwellings and their health services. In order to maximize the usable space of the house, storage spaces are implemented into the walls both floors, creating a wall of cabinets, so necessary to any housing unit.

+ Project facts

Mascotelos House
Date: 2012
Status: On going
Architect: ER Studio – Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto
Project leader: Eric Rodrigues
Project team: José Malhó; Nuno Capêlo de Sousa
Location: Mascotelos, Guimarães; Portugal
Land Area: 790 m2
Construction Area: 455 m2
Website: http://www.er-studio.net

+ All images and drawings courtesy ER Studio – Eric Rodrigues Arquitecto