Valextra

Status

Completed

Date Completed

2019

Scale

600 sf | 55 sm

Typology

Retail

Scope

Objects

Client

Valextra

Project Team

Mei-Lan Tan

Collaborators

COLLECTIVE Studio

In collaboration with COLLECTIVE Studio, Umé Studio designed and fabricated custom cast concrete display tools for the Honolulu location of Valextra, a luxury Italian leather goods brand.

Set within Honolulu’s open-air Ala Moana Center, this boutique redefines the traditional retail threshold. A series of 4-meter-tall, rotating glass doors open perpendicular to the storefront, creating a luminous, fully accessible entry that blurs the line between indoor and outdoor space.

The interior draws inspiration from the island’s natural landscape, merging Hawaiian context with Italian craft. Along the store’s perimeter, “The Beach” features sand-colored raw earth blocks by Italian craftsman Matteo Brioni, which serve as sculptural display platforms and seating for visitors. In the center, “The Mountain” reimagines three-dimensional blocks produced by Italian ceramics company Mutina into a cascading, occupiable display landscape.

Umé Studio designed and produced custom display tools to match the level of craft in the space. Valextra’s leather goods and Mutina’s ceramic blocks both appear effortless—smooth, matte—but an incredible amount of workmanship has gone into these pieces. Similarly, the display tools required an intensive iterative process to develop a cast concrete material that would be highly uniform as well as incredibly durable for a retail environment. Created from a special blend of gypsum and sand with custom color mixes to match the “Beach” and “Mountain” displays, these tools ultimately recede so that Valextra’s colorful products can shine.

The project was awarded an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Merit Award from the Hong Kong chapter in 2020 for Interiors.

The concrete display tools' dimensions were calibrated precisely for Valextra's specific products.

“To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon,  to become part of depth or infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds  its image in the destiny of water.”

Attribution

Left to right: The black forms were created to fabricate the molds for the final product; production at Umé Studio; color testing to ensure an exact match with the store's other elements.

Valextra

State, Country

“To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon, to become part of depth or infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds its image in the destiny of water.”

“To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon,  to become part of depth or infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds  its image in the destiny of water.”