2nd Place: Artman Kids Store, Zanjan
Location: North Saadi Street, No. 218 · Client and User: Artman Leather Industries (Mojtaba Tahzibi) · Design Associates: Mojtaba Sabetfard, Khashayar Shafagh, Farnoosh Eshghi, Elham Alimardani, Elnaz Nasehi, Saeid Hashemi · Construction Director: Khashayar Shafagh · Construction Associates: Sepideh Amirkafi, Younes Tavana Rad, Mostafa Latifi, Vahid Latifi, Elnaz Nasehi, Abbasali Vafaeian · Photography: Ehsan Mohammadlou, Morteza Naghdian
This project is the renovation of a shop within a commercial complex to serve as a children's shoe store for a reputable brand.
Design Concept and Development
The store was designed around the idea of space as play. After analyzing the client's requirements, various options with different design strategies and approaches to children's behavior in space were initially explored. Following group critique and review of ideas together with the client, the concept of creating a playful mechanism within the space was approved. To avoid interfering with the shopping process, the mechanism needed to be as simple as possible. Furthermore, this play element had to operate quickly without disrupting other customers' browsing and purchasing experience.
One of the simplest and most effective stimuli for capturing a child's attention is the creation of sound. Discovering the cause-and-effect process of sound production is part of children's understanding of the world around them. On this basis, the idea of producing a pleasant sound through a mechanical process triggered by natural movements during shopping became the central concept of the project.
Bamboo is an organic material that, in addition to creating a pleasant sound, produces an intimate and warm atmosphere for children. Linear elements of this material in varying lengths have created a wave-like form at the center of the project that, in contrast with the white and simple partitions, lends distinctive visual appeal to the interior space. When each shoe is pulled, a different point on the bamboo surface oscillates and produces sound, creating a gentle wave across its surface.
Directing the mechanical force of the hanging shoes through pulleys to the center of the work naturally created a triangular form beneath the ceiling that bears a striking resemblance to houses in children's drawings. This frame, while establishing the project's formal structure, also generated other interesting possibilities, including its use as a design module for display areas and as a structure from which swings — used for shoe trying-on — are suspended. The triangular form above the work was completed with two diagonal lines at the back of the store so that, viewed from outside, the Artman brand logo is evoked.
Scope of Intervention and Other Details
In the new design, the mezzanine section was separated from the main space as a storage area by a solid wall. To ensure spatial unity, all irregularities and unevenness in the walls were corrected. This made it possible to incorporate various spaces for product display and storage, mechanical services routing, and the shop's operational requirements.
In child psychology, objects suspended in the air become touchable from every direction. This quality is exciting for children and acts as an incentive and stimulus for experiencing the object. Inspired by children's hanging rattles, a bamboo structure was designed for the upper portion of the space, intended not only to create formal movement within the interior but also to evoke the childhood toys of the shoppers.