Stuttgart’s ‘Happy Kids’ shop for children’s clothing was redesigned in the course of the renovation and expansion of its center-city commercial building from the 60’s. The original interior designed by Stefan Wewerka served as orientation and impetus for the new renovation, opening up the original space.
The space is formed by color, movement and light; its center is defined by the original, bright red counter by Wewerka, whose dynamic form now finds its counterpart in a deep concave bench along the glass storefront.
The birch shelves from the 60’s are also maintained. The new display and storage units are stained in a series of gray tones forming a contrasting backdrop to the intensive lacquered color of the central counter. At the same time they provide a neutral presentation background for the colorful children’s merchandise.
The poured asphalt floor is coated in gray and the new birch shelves are also stained in various gray tones. Horizontally and vertically shifted stripes playfully counterbalance the functional arrangement of the shelves, unifying the shelves as a continuous system.
In the similarly light stained birch ceiling, the formal concept finds its spatial completion: narrow backlit slits refer to the orthogonal and the curved lines of the furniture and fittings, modify them and draw them together. The slightly inclined sidewalk along the storefront makes the ceiling of the shop visually apparent to the exterior providing a visual explanation to the interior organization.
Architects — Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger
Team Design and Construction — Philipp Heydel, Hedieh Wojgani
Program
Shop
Location
Stuttgart, Germany
Size
45 sqm
Construction
2003
Client
’Happy Kids’, Marina Schwille, Stuttgart
Interiorwork
Kaupp + Diether, Herrenberg
Lighting Design
Dinnebier Licht, Berlin
Color Concept
Friederike Tebbe, Berlin
Photos
© David Franck