Orla Kiely’s New York Store | Architecture Republic

Orla Kiely’s flagship store in New York is a 215 m2 boutique, situated on the ground floor of a 19th century manufacturing building at 5 Mercer street in the landmark area of Soho. It is the new home from home for the Irish designer’s latest collection. The 7.5m x 28m long space is divided lengthways in two parts; an open plan area that can be used for catwalk shows or exhibitions and a series of domestic scale rooms that house Kiely's signature collection of bags, homewares, stationary, beauty products and wallpaper designs. The spaces are arranged as a 1:1 cross-section of a doll’s house, acting like a stage-set for customers to play out their ambitions of creating an ideal home, complete with original Orla Kiely designs. The modern, interchangeable interior street space allows for theatrical events and unusual displays while the backstage service rooms are integrated into the doll’s house. Making the customer feel comfortable is a priority in retail design and the spaces are proportioned with familiar dimensions relating to a typical home. The cabinetry is designed in modules of 450mm and 750mm to correspond with seat and desk height while the interior spaces have ceilings of 2.4m as in a typical living room or kitchen. All of the furniture was manufactured in Ireland and shipped stateside, representing a tour de force of Irish design abroad. Dublin Project team: Maxim Laroussi, Neil Carroll and Diarmuid O'Sullivan New York Project manager: Paula Flynn New York Executive Architect: Ogawa Depardon Architects New York project team: Gilles Depardon, Kathy Ogawa, Jason Tang Orla Kiely London Project team: Orla Kiely, Chikako Sasaki, Sabrina Atkinson Cabinetry manufacturer: Oikos furniture (ireland), Oval workshop (UK)