New Nature Store / Salon Alper Derinbogaz

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Salon Alper Derinboğaz creates new store designs for Reflect Studio, reimagining the future of nature - Our relationship with nature is always changing, continuously forcing us to upgrade our ideas and approaches. Designed by studio Salon Alper Derinboğaz, the new Reflect Studio stores in Istanbul aim to provide an updated portrayal of our ever-evolving relationship with nature. These stores bring innovative materials and experimental upcycling methods into the AI-generated furniture in the environment, offering a new living habitat. Alper Derinboğaz worked with Reflect Studio’s creative director Furkan Temir who expresses a vision of a brand inspired by an enthusiasm for what’s next. Reflecting a more hopeful and somewhat romantic outlook for the future, these spaces are meant to realize an updated approach to modernism in the new post-covid era.

Concepts of new nature, optimistic futurism, fluidity, and object autonomy - The new Reflect Studio stores go beyond the commercial motives of shopping experiences to create a space that explores exceptional ideas about the future of sustainability and the unique materials that can make it possible. The space embodies a fluid approach to design that sees upcycling, recycling, and repair culture as the future of sustainable practices as it experiments with materials that can be used across a variety of disciplines and functions, from textiles and accessories to interior design and architecture. The inherent experimental nature of the space is meant to materialize a future that has been reset to our existing perceptions. Brought to life by equal input from AI algorithms and human factors, the store becomes a space where humans and non-human-generated objects can interact with each other in a new nature.

Design Details - The creation process and materials were carefully curated around a common optimism about the future of space design, an approach that recognizes its fluidity and validates its need for change. Recycled metal terrazzo flooring, a frozen textile stool, a water ripple changing unit, sigma profile hangers, a green airplane-wing bench, and AI-generated furniture. These are just some of the futuristic elements that make up the physical space of the Reflect Studio Stores. The project seeks to create experimental composites diversified with production techniques that recycle surplus materials belonging to the production phases of textile and architectural practices.

In a renewed outlook on what it means to be sustainable within this new nature, the experimental use of production waste was put to the test. Waste aluminum parts became the aggregate of the recycled metal terrazzo flooring, creating a durable and maintenance-free element. Leftover fabrics from the textile production phases were fixed with resin and transformed into a Frozen Textile Stool. Plastic packaging bags that accumulated as a result of the production process are recycled and turned into epoxy resin shelves. “Rather than designing the finished objects, we adopted a generative process that mimics nature’s evolutionary approach,” says Alper Derinboğaz, operating an iterative process to generate furniture forms designed by AI. By employing boat-building technology, these digital forms were transformed into physical objects with high precision.

The water ripple changing room was fabricated through a stamping process of reflective steel sheets. The surface blurs all the contours inside and evokes disillusionment of the body in space. With its carcass structure, the green airplane-wing bench in front of the changing room minimizes the section thickness of the metal material in use and reflects the image of an aerodynamic object. Echoing the making methods of DIY behavior, sigma profiles were used to allow fast, mechanical, and versatile design possibilities for the hangers. The Changing Pod offers an innovative and futuristic experience, presented in the form of a stand-alone changing room. The pod is built using fiberglass, a material that is both durable and lightweight, making it an ideal choice for a mobile structure. Its spaceship-like design gives it a futuristic ambiance. On the inside, the fuzzy environment provides a stark contrast to the pod's hard, shiny exterior. Homogeneously distributed ceiling lightings work bilaterally to create desired focus points. Facing downward, they illuminate the space, facing upward they accent the environment by tinting negative space. This special design feature of the lighting fixtures allows a programmable atmosphere in contrast to the isolated climate of the malls where stores are located.

Store Details - Aside from these elements, the store is home to Reflect Studio collections, a selection of sustainable sneakers, and an upgraded space where products can be personalized or repaired with a heat press or embroidery machine. The four stores are just the first examples of how the two studios can merge textile and architectural practices into a single space. The two studios hope to continue their experimental space design ventures in the near future with the design of office space by Salon Alper Derinboğsaz for Reflect Studio headquarters.