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“We want something that will be traditional and modern at the same time», that was the main indication I received from my clients, Creed family, when I designed their first boutique, in 2008. Since then, the designs changed slightly, but the idea remained.”- Can Onaner says- “Tradition and Modernity, for a brand wishing to give value to 250 years of existence, seemed legitimate. Still, these two terms required interrogation and precision: I decided to refer to a historical moment and place in which this dialectic had all its meaning. I returned to the end of nineteenth and beginning of twentieth century Vienna, to Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann.”
Like in all Creed boutique designs, for the Rome boutique, the thickness of the architectonic elements, the coffered ceilings, the presence of a classical order with columns, as well as the use of monumental forms such as pyramids and vaults, are the signs of the continuity of a classical tradition coming from Antiquity.
For Adolf Loos, which is the main reference of all Creed boutiques, Roman Antiquity is the essence of a classical tradition that finds its ways into modernity. For the first Creed Boutique in Rome, the monumentality of simple Roman forms such as the arch, the vault and the rigor of the Roman grid are naturally used for ordering the spaces, the uses and the materials. But these elements don’t pretend to form a unifying language, searching the revival of a classicist style. The traditional elements are brought into our days in a contemporary manner, searching the contrast in between the thickness and massiveness of the marble and the fineness and delicacy of the polished stainless steel lines, brass mosaic and mirror surfaces.
The design found its main strength and originality with the choice of the space that has been made by Silvio Levi and Alejandro Alvarez Badia in the first place: a very narrow and long space, less than 3m large, and more than 18m long, with no regular walls and ceilings, no axial openings and differences of levels. This particularity which at first seemed to be a difficulty has actually turned to be one of the main advantages of the project when we started to work on the design with Domenico Farinaro.
The main aspects of Creed design are experienced here through a succession of singular rooms, in several variations. From the first exterior alcove open to the street, to the last room before the garden, the boutique is imagined as a procession that goes through five spaces with specific atmospheres and uses: the internal porch with steles presenting Creed classics is opened to the exterior, before properly entering the boutique; the “exhibit room” where the novelties are exposed has its vaulted ceiling and walls in brass mosaic, coffered with individual niches, the ground in checkerboard marble; the main testing room has its walls and vaulted ceiling with tridimensional brass grid reflected on mirrored surfaces, while the testing counters and ground are in massive marble; the cash area meets again with the more habitual Creed spatial design with its marble columns, plaster beams, ceiling coffers with brass grid, small bulbs and mirrors; the seating area, with green velvet and brass walls, is surmounted by a pyramidal light box in glass, brass and mirrors..
Attracted by the view of a green garden wall at the end of his journey, the passerby goes through the different atmospheres of Creed imagery, before reaching the small lounge were she/he can take the time to taste and discover her/his own individual perfume. Behind the cash desk stands a private “museum room” with old and rare Creed objects
Can Onaner
Can Onaner is an architect with a PhD in history of art. He is currently Professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecturede Bretagne in Rennes, and member of the LIAT research group, at the Ensa Paris-Malaquais. In 2009 he starts his own architectural practice. He founds the urban and architectural research and design group Documents with Nicolas Duru,William Parlon and Georgi Stanishev. He has published several articles in French and international journals. He participated to the IUA symposium in 2010 with a short film titled The Lodger of Tzara House. He has curated the exhibition Temps Suspenduin 2013 in Bordeaux. In parallel to his teaching and research practice, he designs and builds interiors for the traditional perfume brand Creed and works on several interior projects.
by AN shopfitting magazine no.164 ©
