A new light

TEXT BY PIET SMEDY

House and Garden magazine – June 2016

For interior architect John Jacob, creating the new Luminance store in Sandton was an exercise in restrained glamour and perfect proportion.

The difference between decorating a home and a retail space is all down to the experience. ‘In a home, you’re creating excitement with things, with decor concepts,’ explains interior architect John Jacob. ‘In this space, we couldn’t do that because it would be too loud, it would drown out the product. In that way, you need a much more intense level of restraint.’

John, who’s been with the fashion retailer since its inception, couldn’t be a more natural fit. One of SA Style Awards’ Top 20 Style Icons and a celebrated designer, it’s John’s innate knowledge of light and proportion to which the success of the new Luminance store is owed .

‘The thing that Luminance has going for it is volumes,’ he says about the project. ‘It is set up as a series of rooms and it’s the dynamic between those rooms that makes it an exciting experience as a retail space.’

What you’re presented with, then, is a series of intimate encounters with high-end offerings, not unlike a chic department store. Each one is different, from the bright lights and reflective surfaces of the high-energy cosmetics hall to the softly lit, more peaceful womenswear section. ‘The thing about retail is that the experience becomes exciting when you’ve given context to the product, rather than just pile it all up,’ says John.

‘However, there is still a sense of consistency in the store, a harmony in the proportion that ties the rooms together.’ The challenge of designing the space came in creating a forum within which so many varied brands could coexist peacefully. To solve this problem, John focused on the lighting aspect. ‘It’s called Luminance, after all; he says with a laugh. ‘We’ve created a foil for all these design languages, one that uses subtle back lighting to draw the eye in towards the product. We’ve treated the pieces like artworks and the space like a gallery.’

Read more John Jacob Interiors Magazine features here…