Clap imagines "new planet" inside Hong Kong fashion cafe Her
Stacked terracotta display plinths and celestial aluminium partitions help create an other-worldly atmosphere within this fashion store-cum-cafe in Hong Kong.
Her cafe and shop in Hong Kong, designed by Clap
Located at the heart of major shopping district Causeway Bay, Her has been designed by Clap to "transport guests to a new planet".
The store – which also serves coffee, cookies and unusual iced coffees to browsing customers – is the brainchild of local stylist Hilary Tsui.
Her cafe and shop in Hong Kong, designed by Clap
"[Tsui's] desire was to create a retail space dedicated to contemporary women that brings together her two passions in one place: fashion and gastronomy," explained the studio, who are based in Valencia, Spain.
"So we imagined Her as a sinuous landscape, with impressive mountains and pure materials – all together as a new space that's yet to be discovered, like planet Mars."
Her cafe and shop in Hong Kong, designed by Clap
Terracotta tiles are stacked to form a series of blocky plinths that the studio likens to "reddish mountains", where accessories can be displayed or visitors can sit and rest.
The tiles have also been applied across the floors and the lower half of the store's exterior.
Her cafe and shop in Hong Kong, designed by Clap
Clothing items are hung from wavy racks that are suspended from the ceiling. Jewellery is presented on pale circular tables supported by thin metal stems, intended to resemble "small white lotus leaves that grow from the mountains".
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As well as the service counter in the cafe, a couple of structural columns and an arched partition have been clad in aluminium – a nod to the typical material palette of spacecraft.
Her cafe and shop in Hong Kong, designed by Clap
Arch shapes are repeated in the curtained doorways that lead to the store's changing rooms, and in the huge windows that puncture the front facade.
Adding to the space theme, a handful of portholes – akin to those seen on a rocket – have been cut-out of the peripheral walls, covered with orange-coloured glass. Purchases by customers are also vacuum-packed much like an astronaut's food.
This isn't the only retail space that Clap has designed – last year the studio completed a children's shoe shop in Valencia, which features playful arched doorways and primary-coloured furnishings.
A couple of other projects also boast loosely space-themed interiors: metallic paint, perforated metal and black rubber to give a futuristic feel to Voyager Espresso coffee bar in New York, while Guapa Flower Shop in Russia features an illuminated ceiling inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.