This project was about bringing together a showroom dedicated to the world of design objects inside the architecture of an existing building: «The Orange Cube». The intention was to bring the worlds of Architecture, Design and the uniqueness of the site in Lyon together into one experience.
The project is designed as a simple orthogonal « cube » into which a giant hole is carved, responding to necessities of light, air movement and views. This hole creates a void, piercing the building horizontally from the river side inwards and upwards through the roof terrace.
In order to create the void, JAKOB + MACFARLANE worked with a series of volumetric perturbations, linked to the subtraction of three “conic” volumes disposed on three levels: the angle of the façade, the roof and the level of the entry. These perturbations generate spaces and relations between the building, its users, the site and the light supply, inside a common office program.
JAKOB + MACFARLANE decided to take the language of the Cube, which is based on the fluid movement of the River Saône and in a sense project this movement inside the space of the showroom. Thus imagining the space as an extrapolation of the façade, a virtual three dimensional river or volume containing a long porous wall whose 60 “alvéoles” are filled with furniture. This wall wraps around the space of the showroom forming an L. The spectator moves from the spectacular entry wall towards more intimate spaces on the river side. Each “alvéole” is unique in seize and form allowing thus an intimate and private view of each design piece.
The platforms on the floor, made from a series of kitset pants, imagined like islands, can become stages for different thematic presentations.
