As part of my masters project, I designed a mountaineering shop in the heart of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in Haute Savoie (France).

I wanted my store to echo the vertiginous mountains surrounding Chamonix and the riskiness of mountaineering.
I imagined a path around very tall and steep walls, with wide and narrow faults where the customers would not only be shopping but living a mountaineering experience.

The products are not stacked on shelves but hanging on cables like a « via ferrata » and disposed at eye height on the sides of the walls.

Climbing grips and exible straps along the walls allowed me to present the products in a different and original way. They are either jammed in or suspended. Therefore they are no longer simply presented upfront but can be approached from different angles. Items from the new collections are presented on furniture that visually look very light, raising them harmoniously from the ground (up to 50 to 85 cm high).

Only one copy of each product is displayed in the shop, the rest of the inventory is in the stock room situated in the basement. Easy access to it permits the salesman to access it rapidly.

I used a 3D design and printing tool for my nal project.
It saved me a lot of time – time that I spent thinking about how to improve the customers experience in my store. It also allowed me to be more precise

and creative in my project.

The large vertical walls that structure my project have a li le void between their base and the oor. It reinforces the feeling of vertigo that I wanted to create.

CONCEPT

When I started my project I started by looking up the vocabulary of mountaineering. I assembled sketches, illustrations, experimental models in blue expanded foam.

The great conquest reports of Louis Lachenal, Maurice Herzog, René Desmaison, and Walter Bonati on the reliefs of the Seracs Glaciers inspired me a lot during the first phase.

This led me to configure my final model into 4 spaces. The presence of high virtiginious walls separate the space, yet a connection can be made between them creating a fault, therefore generating a vertical chimney-like circulation.