Floristry Wild at Heart

The façade of the flower shop in London’s Notting Hill district strikingly differs from the classic concept of store windows in London, which are just large glass surfaces in steel or concrete frames. The design of Kaplický’s façade is instead inspired by the representation of shops from the interwar modern era, which he could have seen as a young architect in Prague or in the many published designs of Wells Coates' shops from the 1920s and 1930s. Nicky Tibbles, owner of the flower shop Wild at Heart, already owned one exceptionally well-designed shop by Piers Gough in the same district. For the new larger shop, she sought a slightly more formal expression. As Angus Pond, a collaborator at Future Systems, says, they needed to “create an elegant fashion environment for the flowers.”
The result was a simple white interior that highlights the splendor of the colors of each flower. Instead of displaying flowers traditionally in buckets of many bunches, the blooms are placed on wavy cascading shelves, into which vessels of water have been built. The supporting structure of the curved shelves is made of white-painted MDF boards. The basement contains a preparation area and other facilities for the shop. To allow daylight to flow in uninterrupted, a piece of flooring was removed right at the entrance. This opening is spanned by an entrance bridge, which is flanked on both sides by two curved railings. Two additional elements were incorporated between the flower shelves: a light yellow plastic sofa and a cash register. A projector suspended from the ceiling broadcasts various flower images on the back wall of the store.
Undoubtedly, one of the most impressive parts of the project is the glass panel that was placed in front of the original façade. “We wanted to create something new and not just install traditionally framed glass,” explains Pond. This element acts as a transplanted sheet of glass, immediately indicating what is new and what is old here. The glass is painted from the back, with a transparently organically shaped window left in the middle.
In conclusion, there remains an aluminum entrance ramp that completes this exceptional shop. It spans the newly created opening to the basement and stands in opposition to all conventional shop entrances in the area. It also recalls the early projects of Future Systems, such as the renovation of the apartment of Deyan Sudjić from 1983, and serves as an introduction to the entrance tunnel of Comme des Garçons in New York, which followed a year later.

Note: Wild at Heart is the title of a film by David Lynch from 1990.