Designer and artist Jordana Maisie creates a modern and minimal interior for FEIT’s latest store in New York City’s West Village.
FEIT, the footwear and leather accessories brand launched by brothers Tull and Josh Price in 2005, has earned a reputation and loyal following for their quality, durability and unique style. All FEIT products are handmade in limited quantities, using natural materials and traditional shoemaking techniques to ensure minimal environmental impact and exceptional quality.
To create a retail space which not only reflects the modern, minimalist aesthetics and attention to craftsmanship of the brand, but also stays true to its philosophy, FEIT worked with fellow Australian artist and designer Jordana Maisie. This is FEIT’s second collaboration with Maisie, who also designed their highly praised Flagship New York Store in Nolita. This new West Village location is not only a retail space, but doubles as an installation, entitled “Installation Two: Volume and Void”.
“Volume and Void” is an accurate way to describe this striking space, where seemingly suspended planes of wood in angular geometric shapes come together to form a labyrinthine composition of floor-to-ceiling stacked and duplicated forms.
Bringing the designer’s vision to life required using both craft techniques and digital technology: each piece of Baltic birch plywood used to make up the shelving components was cut into a unique shape using computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines, then hand-sanded and assembled into modules offsite before being fitted into place at the store.
Through a process similar to that of moulding leather to a last in shoemaking, volumetric moulds were used to carve out asymmetrical, distinct spaces within the slatted timber mass, within which the shoes can be displayed to best advantage. The overall aesthetic effect of the simple materials, clean lines and reduced color palette of the store’s interior create the ideal habitat for FEIT’s sleek monochromatic designs. Built with raw or recycled natural materials, the store is also fully aligned with FEIT’s eco-friendly, minimal environmental impact principle.
Openings in the linear elements provide sight lines between the interior of the store and the street outside, while mirrors are used to amplify the transparency of the installation and to further open the space up visually. Both the architectural elements and lighting design play with perception of depth and space, making it difficult to distinguish where the boundaries within the space lie.
Embedded within the wooden shelving units are LEDs that not only brighten and dim, but also change color temperature in accordance with the seasons to add an element of comfort and create an internal climate independent of that of the city outside, thus creating a more immersive retail experience.
Architect: Jordana Maisie
Location: 11 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014, USA
Area: 39.0 sqm
Photographs: Nicholas Calcott, Naho Kubota
