High gloss acrylic surfaces. Solid brass profile. Suspended showcases. The rebuilt jewellery and watch department in the Amsterdam luxury department store De Bijenkorf plays with contrasts and high quality visuals.
The tension was mounting when De Bijenkorf revealed its newly designed jewellery and watch department on 15 September 2017. After a reconstruction period of 14 days, the new shop fitting shone as brightly as the exclusive collections of renowned designers. The design was the creation of the London architectural office Alex Cochrane Architects. Hoffmann Interior was on board again as a competent implementation partner.
Hoffmann Interior has impressed with its proactive way of working on past projects. In the context of value engineering, experienced project managers supported De Bijenkorf in selecting a visually excellent and at the same time attractively priced material, which was also sampled and approved by the customer prior to the production process. This was also the process for the high gloss black acrylic slab material that makes up a considerable part of the design concept. It lines the sales islands and with its high degree of gloss it generates an interesting reflection of the existing marble floor. In contrast with this, some showcases in the centre of the space have been made to create an existing mix of services. The sales islands are complemented by jewellery showcases, which are edged with solid brass profiles from the company’s own metal manufacturing workshop.
The suspended wall presentation is another eye-catcher. Hoffmann Interior has also able to impress here with its many years of expertise, as a general contractor. Project manager Friedrich Dellen reports, “It took a fair bit of preparatory work to give the wall showcases a suspended effect. The walls first had to be built up using a reinforcing substructure, and in the next step the tiled section with stone décor was applied. So that the white and black powdered sharp edged aluminium grid wall could then be attached, we fitted the steel frame of the substructure directly with connector systems to accommodate the electric cabling for the lighting that was later installed.”
