Showroom & Art Space in a Neoclassical Moscow Building

Architects: WALL​

Year: 2020

Location: Moscow, Russia

This boutique for the Russian brand Rasario is located in Moscow, on the Smolenskaya embankment in a 1950s building.

While working on the project, the architects of WALL architecture firm created a flexible and transformable art space. At its center is a monolithic concrete “staircase-sculpture.” The interior of the boutique consists of showrooms on the first and second floors, fitting rooms, offices, and production areas.

The boutique was intended to emulate a museum typology. It wanted to avoid directly creating an interior space, instead transforming it into a multifunctional urban space where the furnishings also create the impression of a “second square” or street.

This allows visitors to become part of the “theatrical action” in the space.

The dynamic arched openings and mirrors help to visually expand each space, creating the impression of an endless, far-reaching corridor. Materials in a restrained gray-black palette were used to help further the typology of the museum, including Venetian plaster, mirrors, glass, and black-painted metal. Custom-made metal medallions on the floor further the impression of a city square or street.

Photography: Ilya Ivanov​