Xocolatti in New York City by De-Spec

Article source: De-Spec

Xocolatti is a new premium chocolate brand, with its first flagship location in New York City’s Soho. Designed by De-Spec inc. Xocolatti defines itself as a luxury chocolate – “Chocolate reimagined” and is planning to have multiple locations nationally and internationally.

De-Spec’s concept for the 150sf space lies in eliminating the traditional barriers of a storefront and window display instead creating an interactive vitrine-like space that seamlessly integrates with the streetscape.

Costumer

• Architects: De-Spec
• Project: Xocolatti, flagship store & prototype
• Location: 72 Prince Street, New York City
• Program: 150 sqft chocolate store
• Design: de-spec, Farnaz Mansuri, Tom Shea

Xocolatti

The walls are lined with custom-designed, floor-to-ceiling bronze shelving systems that are based on the multiple variations of the different sizes of the green and brown chocolate boxes. The wall acting as both STORAGE and DISPLAY permit multiple graphic patterns, bold and iconic.  Customers, daily, choose their favorite chocolate boxes and take it out of the wall resulting in multiple patterns at the end of each day making every day unique.  This interaction between customer and display provides an animating narrative to the presentation of the store throughout the day with an insightful discovery for the owners as the largest gaps in the wall indicates the favorite flavors of the day.  For the materials of the project, De-Spec chose Bronze as it has the richer brown color inspiring more artisanal and luxury chocolates.

Streetscape

De-Spec invited Exit Creative to collaborate on the brand identity and together, the two firms created the glowing light boxes featuring each product.  This layer of information over the neutrality of the grid enables the customer a more clear reading of their options and flavors.  De-spec acted as both designer and builder and was able to put together a very strong team of craftsman to produce and install the new display system and its components using CNC, Laser cutting and casting of various metal works throughout the project.

Xocolatti

Xocolatti

Xocolatti

Xocolatti

Streetview

Table Detail

Tags: New York

Categories: Building, Stores

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