RCA student creates new Boutique area for Topshop

Royal College of Art student Rob Vinall has created a new interior for the Boutique area of Topshop’s Oxford Street flagship store.

The new Boutique interior
The new Boutique interior

Vinall, formerly a designer at Universal Design Studio, has developed a design which uses a triangular modular ceiling grid to support hung elements for the products.

Vinall’s designs were selected following a competition given to the first group of students starting the RCA’s Interior Design MA programme, as part of a live retail projects.

This system allows Topshop to change the look of the Boutique over time, by altering the space to suit different collections and events.

Hanging elements from the ceiling
Hanging elements from the ceiling

Vinall’s designs also feature a wall graphic that has a colour-graduation printed on the mirror to match the colour palette of the ceiling, and the designs also break out of the Boutique space to entice customers in from the main shop floor.

Vinall says, ‘The initial concept was an idea of cause and effect, giving importance to the elements of hanging and balance.’

Ab Rogers, head of interior design at the RCA, says, ‘The genius of Rob’s design is to hang the merchandise from a suspended grid to remove everything from the floor.

The triangular modular ceiling
The triangular modular ceiling

‘It’s an antidote to classic retail design where most display systems have large unfilled volumes of space above them. The grid creates discipline and precision, bringing elegance and calm to the Boutique’s interior.’

The new Boutique designs will be installed later this month and will, according to Topshop, be in place for the foreseeable future.

The RCA Interior Design MA was reinstated last year under Ab Rogers, after being absorbed into the architecture course in 2005. The RCA says Rogers has plans to develop further live briefs as part of the course.

The Boutique interior breaks out into the main floor space
The Boutique interior breaks out into the main floor space
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