Ace & Tate store in Nuremberg by Studio Weiss-heiten

The Dutch eyewear brand Ace & Tate is on a steady expansion course with more than 20 stores in Germany. Weiss-heiten Studio from Berlin designed the Nuremberg branch with reference to the city's history as a tin toy and half-timbered metropolis.

by Judith Jenner, 10.09.2020

The planning: conception from afar
It had to go fast when Birgit Kohlhaas and her Studio Weiss-heiten designed the new branch of Ace & Tate in Nuremberg. They had just four weeks for planning phases 0 to 3. The first concept was even developed via Zoom with the Amsterdam-based client - from Ubud in Bali, where the Weiss-heiten team was working at the time and offering workshops for young architects "A site visit was not possible at the time. We designed the Tin Toy story from afar based on photos, videos and floor plans," explains Birgit Kohlhaas. An absolute exception, because normally the feeling of space is essential for her work. There was a later site inspection, but only after the conception phase was completed.

Moodboard
The design: reference to the toy city
The design concept is a modern, playful interpretation of Nuremberg's famous tin toy era. The simple 1960s building in Nuremberg's pedestrian zone offered ideal conditions for this. The 130-square-meter space is divided into a rectangular salesroom with large display windows on two sides. It is adjoined by two small opticians' rooms. One of the highlights of the store is the view of the Pegnitz River from the opticians' room. "We were very free in the design. What's important is the original Ace & Tate feeling and a good story," explains Birgit Kohlhaas. "Our concept is always based on the location, the brand and the target group." Only the display system for the glasses is the same in all stores. The designers were able to create all the furniture, the counter and the benches according to their ideas and adapted them to the Tin Toy story.

The color concept: CI meets nostalgia
The reference point for the design was the history of Nuremberg: as a leading production site for tin toys and as a half-timbered metropolis. The characteristic wooden structure of the half-timbered houses is cited in black color bars on the ceiling. The toy theme is reflected in the color concept and in the choice of materials for the furniture. The challenge here was to turn old-fashioned childhood fun into a modern and cool interpretation for the trendy Ace & Tate brand. To achieve this, the designers selected color tones characteristic of the tin toys of yesteryear - such as the bright turquoise of the counter - and combined them with colors from the corporate identity of the eyewear manufacturer. The installation of neon tubes above the counter uses interwoven geometric shapes to reference the historic toy and translate it into the present day. Tin toys were also an important source of inspiration for the materials used in the furniture: durable, colorful, lightweight and easy to shape. The architects chose painted, curved metal as the sheet metal look for the cubical fixtures, combined with a warm oak veneer as a contrasting material.

As with the stores for Ace & Tate in Munich, Bristol and Ghent, the designers at Weiss-heiten chose a regional reference for the retail project. They used the creative freedom granted to them by the client to create an exciting color and material concept, which they cast in a contemporary form despite the historical reference.

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