SOIL

program: Organic Products Store / Retail location: Al Seef Village Mall, Abudhabi, UAE status: Built year: 2019

acknowledgement(s):

CID Awards 2020 Best Interior Design of the Year shortlist

Interior Desing Mag 2019: Best Concept of the Year shortlist

Shortlisted as Best Interior Design Concept of the Year at Commercial Interior Design Awards 2019 and Best Interior Design of the Year in CID 2020, Soil Store is the desire of an Emirati entrepreneur to expand her start-up brand which used to be represented as small kiosks into fully functional stores dedicated to unique range of bio and organic food and drinks products in which customers can purchase items as well as learning to cook on the spot or try them inside the store. One of our big challenges was how to accommodate and combine the three main functional spaces of Shopping, Eating and a Bar counter into an 80 square meter of space and at the same time stay true to the brand motto of healthy and cleanliness.

For this reason, Entrance to the shop contains full height glazed panels (4m) and sliding glass panel entrance. Interior finishes is limited to texture painted with paste-based Tere De Lune in white, Terrazzo aggregates in matt finish, a vertical grey porcelain slab as an accent and white washed oak wood. The shop is divided into two sections of products display recessed into the wall and an eating space. Two closely different but identical terrazzo finishing mixtures has been used for the floor and the counter. To further provide the space with a sense of openness we took a radical decision to present the two middle display units as an impression of floating islands by suspending them with metal bars covered with cotton ropes connected to the ceiling beams. Another step was to design a clean fully white texture painted open ceiling with a grid system made of timber to support pendant lights and AC ducts. Soil Store design intend is to create an experience that embraces the deep reflection of users into simplicity and healthy life style.