Very Small Shops

Very Small Shops is a lush and quirky peek at 40 small retail spaces from around the world, ranging from 1600 ft² down to just 16 ft².

Author: John Stones (Laurence King Publishing, 2009)
Reviewed by Laura Kozak

1600 square feet is about the size of 8 parking spots or an average 1970’s bungalow. It is also the size of the largest store featured in Very Small Shops, a recently released Laurence King book that examines tiny retail spaces from around the world. Writer John Stones explores the solutions architects, designers and shopkeepers have come up with to make these spaces efficiently and effectively display and sell products.

Starting with SMALL, the reader gets a glimpse of 7 shops ranging from 1100 - 1600 ft². The metrics are important here - the shops in this first chapter are just on the small size of average. The design of each has been carefully conceived to complement the product and branding of the company. F-shop Hamburg, the flagship shop of the German maker of bags sewn from truck tarpaulins, integrates the brand’s aesthetic into its design and site. Located in Hamburg’s harbour area, F-shop reminds shoppers of its products’ industrial origin inside and out. The main display area of the shop is a raised room on metal stilts; it mimics the exact dimensions of a large shipping container. Owner Marcus Freitag says “It has the feeling of the space of a truck. It is a bit claustrophobic but it is also very special.” Each unique bag is packed in a box that hangs inside the mock container for shoppers to select freely. Outside this display area, the floor of the shop is both slanted and parallel the road outside, and finished with an asphalt surface. Full of spatial and tactile surprises, F-Shop Hamburg uses its site’s small space to reinforce the unique quality of their signature product.

Like F-shop, the shops in the SMALL chapter are exquisite and smart, but not extremely constrained for space. The designs tend to be driven by branding and aesthetic, as opposed to spatial constraints. In the second chapter, SMALLER, we start to see how limited square footage has influenced design. At 560 ft², Aranaz Boutique, in Makati City, Philippines takes its cues from the crocodile skin of the handbags it displays. Employing ‘tessellated geometry’ to harmonize shelving, lighting, product display and acoustic panels into one geometric form gives the impression that one is walking right into a bag upon entering the store. This web-like structure also doubles up the functionality of these elements, cutting down the amount of visual and physical space each uses. This concept was produced by young designer Juan Carlo Calma on a shoestring budget, and uses prefabricated assembly and reclaimed materials.

The third chapter, TINY, delivers what the reader is really waiting for: 18 shops under 550 square feet. It is at this scale, about the size of a large living room, that the truly unconventional design solutions occur. With Eames Room-like distortion, Zagreb’s A Piece of Cake (designed by artist Ivana Franke and architect Petar Miskovic) uses a slanted floor and non-orthogonal walls to create a false sense of perspective; from the window, the room looks much deeper than its 194 ft². Along the side walls horizon line, a narrow slice in the wall serves as a pass-through counter for cake-eaters; the slanted floor allows them to approach the counter at whatever height is comfortable.

Very Small Shops is an attractive and fun look at the careful and clever ways retailers and designers around the world have dealt with small storefront spaces. Though noted that most of the items sold at these stores must also be small (cosmetics, shoes, jewelry, eyeglasses, electronics), the solutions are creative and the results are both beautiful and interesting. Great photos of these destination shops are accompanied by architectural plans and lists of materials employed by each design. Very Small Shops lives up to its opening mantra; good things do come in small packages.

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To see more of the book, visit the Laurence King Publishing website.

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Laura Kozak is a cartographic enthusiast, bibliophile and buddy of the Helen Pitt gallery. She has a BFA from Emily Carr, studied Environmental Design UBC and maintains an independent design practice at studio CAMP.