% Arabica Riyadh The Zone
This store is the first Saudi Arabian store of % ARABICA, which opened in The Zone, a shopping complex in Riyadh.
The Zone has a courtyard with brightly colored plants, and during the daytime, the strong sunlight hits them and casts dark shadows.
The idea was to make the store contradictory to the surrounding environment, while pursuing the minimalism that is typical of % ARABICA, in order to strongly appeal to the fact that this is the first store that % ARABICA has opened in Saudi Arabia.
It was also an attempt to create a space without color and shadow.
The light floor is the most effective mechanism to eliminate shadows, and by making the store completely white, only the products of % ARABICA stand out.
The store has a series of circular arches from the entrance to the roasting room, which is an abstraction of the arches in traditional Islamic architecture. In addition, the mirrors on the walls create endless arches like the corridors of a mosque.
The reason why we incorporated elements that locals usually see is because we want people to get familiar with this store as if it were a regular place to visit.
We hope that people will enjoy their special time in this space along with their first experience with % ARABICA's special coffee.
no.10
Pursuing elegant simplicity from start to finish.
We relentlessly explore balances between spaces, materials, people,
and environs from the start to finish of projects to reveal elegantly simple solutions that elevate the human spirit.
Credits
Client: ASIAMIX
Designer/Studio: Jun Watanabe / no.10
Country: Japan
Photographs: © Mashal Alhalafi
