Candy Shop, Brookline, MA – design 2009

Inspired by such confectionery emporiums as Dylan’s in New York City, the client intended a smaller establishment catering to the active, family-filled milieu of Brookline’s Coolidge Corner neighborhood. This schematic design revolved around the simple intention of knitting together the diverse, colorful, and inevitably chaotic system of displays, casework, and graphics that typically activate such retail establishments. By creating a thread of continuity – a, tentatively, red wall/soffit insert – the aim was to create a datum that can accommodate, indeed control, the sundry elements that would necessarily change over time. The fragmented tube-like insert (initially inspired by the red ribboning of an archetypal candy cane, but developed with more specificity and abstractness) also adjusts the scale of the pinched, narrow zone, dematerializing at the service counter in the rear where the space also widens. This wider zone enables a nook accommodating limited seating and a self-serve Yogurt station, a zone of respite somewhat separate from the more active retail zone. An external awning is designed as the other terminus of the insert, further promoting its continuity while engaging the passersby.