Safe from slipping in the shop and in the mountains

Birgit Hansen
Cologne, Germany

hansen
innenarchitektur
materialberatung
Geisselstraße 44
50823 Köln

“Rays of sunshine break through the clouds and form little pools of light on the floor. The mountain ranges are silhouetted like paper cut-outs against the light sky.” Faced with the task of developing a shop concept with a new series of slip resistant tiles, I immediately thought of the connection to hiking and climbing boots. After all, just as the tiles, they are intended to provide safe footing even in difficult conditions. In this series, porcelain stoneware, as a material with a multitude of opportunities for design, takes on a look between stone and leather in various degrees of wear. It thus invites you to play with material identities. With its stylised mountain ranges the shop provokes associations to mountains and wide open spaces without degenerating into stage setting. Sorted according to the relative demand categories, the shoes are presented in the presentation areas, “flat land”, “highlands” and “alpine”. In this way, customers can immediately recognise the operational applications of the respective models intuitively – even without written descriptions. At the same time, the areas provide the opportunity to show differing formats and surfaces. The indirect lighting heightens the tangible effect of the “mountain ranges” and highlights the structures of the tile surfaces. Small pools of light vitalise the floor space and provide sufficient illumination for fitting.

Material collage: 1. Emotion deep anthracite R10/A · 2. Tree bark · 3. Mountain world · 4. Pools of light · 5. Emotion medium grey R11/B · 6. Emotion deep anthracite R9 · 7. Hiking boot

Emotion tiles in a variety of colours and surface structures, combined with the authenticity of the tree trunk stools provide an impressive setting for the hiking boots. Emotion medium grey R11/B and Emotion deep anthracite R10/A were used for the presentation (below) and deep anthracite R9 for the floor (right).