Frame Publishers and Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam joined forces for a creative centre in the historic Felix Meritis building. A new creative platform has opened its doors, enlivening the monumental Felix Meritis residence at 324 Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. The space will host numerous events and exhibitions organized by both Frame and Foam. Alongside the events, Frame Publishers has created two retail spaces – designed by local outfit i29 – with a focus on fashion and design.
The Frame Store offers a three-dimensional experience of the magazine – a creative and innovative universe that surprises and inspires. The world of Frame shows what good design can do, and is a celebration of beauty, functionality and accessibility through timeless products. The Frame Store will stage new talents, new products and new brands from various genres. Fashion, art and design sit alongside media, beauty and food. The interior of the canal-side store is just as inspiring as its innovative products. The monumentality of Zuilenzaal – an attraction in itself – has been heightened through an intervention by i29 interior architects. Transforming the space into a mirrored universe, the award-winning designers elevate and reflect its grandeur.
To i29, the multiple use of mirrors throughout the monumental space stands for reflection of time and history; the old versus the new. Furthermore it represents Frame’s role reflecting on architecture, interiors and products as published in it’s magazine. Products are presented on series of single platforms with mirrored sides and black top surfaces with integrated black frames. The surfaces and products seam to float through space. The goal was to create a surreal world of reflecting elements presenting the products without interfering with the quality of the monumental environment.
Two larger mirrored objects contain fitting rooms, a small art gallery and stairs that offer a different perspective for the visitors climbing them, and a surreal image for the other visitors in the shop looking only at the top half of these personages. The contradiction of this minimal and modest intervention, is that the volumes are absorbed in the existing space and seem to dissapear. At the same time they are adding extreme sharpness and intensify the experience of the existing space even more than before.
