City department store "Lukse" is a multi-brand luxury shopping complex in the very heart of Novosibirsk, where the first lines of world fashion brands are presented.
The work on the project included a large-scale reconstruction of facades and interiors. The main task in the design was the creation of a single inseparable complex of two buildings: an organic connection between a historical building and a modern structure.
The historic building, which houses the city department store, was previously the administrative building of a machine-building plant and has not undergone major repairs for many years.
The department store is visually divided into two volumes: the main one is designed in the classic style of the original Stalinist facade with high vertical divisions for window and entrance openings.
One of the project's objectives was to bridge the gap in the urban fabric and extend the environment of a comfortable pedestrian zone from the opera house and the central square of the city towards the Oktyabrskaya highway (formally "extend" the city center).
Therefore, in the project, we paid great attention to landscaping and facade lighting: we expanded the sidewalk and made additional parking pockets, as part of the improvement, space was allocated for lawns with decorative street lights and benches with flowerpots with greenery.
To emphasize the verticality of the proportions of the building, the windows of the first and second floors were combined into elongated glass showcases, and the windows of the third and fourth floors were combined with color. All the protruding vertical pilasters and the remaining decorative elements of the facade are painted in a light color.
In the glazing of the facade, glass with the highest degree of transparency is used. This makes the department store visually open to the urban environment.
The insert between buildings No. 29 and No. 31 along Serebrenikovskaya Street is a modern interpretation of Art Nouveau. In this part of the building there is a separate entrance, the facade of which is decorated with cascading "steps", due to the structural features of the existing building. The heights of these "steps" are related to the proportions of the main building.
The structures of cantilever-suspended canopies over the entrances (they are the ones that bring Art Nouveau elements to the main building) are made in different colors to visually separate the two different entrances.
The exterior of the annex is finished with perforated stainless steel panels. Behind the stainless steel panels, there is a backlight that highlights the steel pattern and creates the effect of light waves streaming in a cascade.
The interior of the city department store "Lukse" is a single space for a collection of premium brands of clothing, footwear and perfumery.
The necessary technical elements for a modern multi-brand store - elevators and escalators - were additionally integrated into the building.
To connect the space between the first and third floors, an atrium was formed, the volume of which, like the main reception area located below it, is decorated with custom-made brass decorative elements reminiscent of floating parts of an organ instrument.
The inner walls of the escalators, stretching from the basement to the fifth floor, are lined with brass-anodized metal rhombuses using the ploughshare technique, which made it possible to hide the fastenings of each element and create a single “iridescent” surface.
The design of the checkout areas on all floors is dominated by a wave - a form that stylistically unites all floors, made in different colors and materials on each of them.
A proportion of "chaos" in the strict orthogonal structure of the interior of the floors is brought in by the bumpy texture of the walls, which runs continuously from the first floor - an organic wavy surface created here specially to form an authentic naturalistic and spontaneous image of the entire department store.
On the upper floors (for children and teenagers), we did not try to hide the structural elements, communications or sew up well-preserved historical brickwork under the panels. We considered the original appearance with a little modern treatment to be the most advantageous option for the interior of these floors.
The interior of the shoe floor is assembled from volumetric capsules lined with natural canvas. The capsules are dyed with individual colors for the tasks of the expositions: tobacco color in men's shoes, dusty mint in women's shoes, pearl gray in the accessories area.
The central cavity of the shoe floor is united by veneered diamond-shaped panels, continuing the idea of a common continuous space of the city department store.
