When innovative brands push the boundaries of what “retail” means today and tomorrow, there is no playbook to rely on or precedent to consult.
From the start, former online-only retailer Sonos (Santa Barbara, Calif.), known by audiophiles for its well-designed and engineered sound systems, believed the best way to experience its products was by listening to music at a friend’s house, in a real-life home environment in which they would be used.
When Sonos opened its first brick-and-mortar store on Greene Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood this past July, those hypothetical friends’ houses were transformed into seven 10-by-12-foot individual listening rooms that resemble small houses within the 4200-square-foot store. Aiming to create an encounter that’s impossible to achieve online, each soundproof space has its own musical and aesthetic flavor to showcase Sonos’ product range.
“It’s a noisy, chaotic world, and we’re in a world of subpar listening,” explains Dmitri Siegel, vp of brand, Sonos. “To have a space that’s designed around a great listening experience, it’s really resonating with people.”
The brand also tapped local artists and musicians for contributions that would help define the spaces and express the brand: In room six, New York-based illustrator Mark Stamaty created black-and-white, graphic novel-style illustrations for the room’s walls that add dimension and depth to the sparsely furnished area. Located at the bottom of a curved staircase, listening room seven – known as “the analog room” – is complete with a curated cassette tape collection from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and a vintage turntable and reel-to-reel machine engineered by industrial designer Dieter Rams.
As for the main store, customers are greeted by an 8-by-10-foot illustrated map of New York’s musical history as seen by Rick Rubin, famed producer and founder of Def Jam records, who has reportedly been a “friend of the brand” for years. An extensive vintage zine collection (remember zines?) curated by archivist Arthur Fournier is proudly displayed among other memorabilia.
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Just as no detail was overlooked in the store’s interior, the designers also focused heavily on the quality of sound in the listening rooms and open spaces. A focal wall called the “Wall of Sounds” features a collection of arranged speakers, not only meant to impress visually, but to add a sound absorbtive element to the space – where, for optimal performance, sound experts advise keeping a 50/50 ratio of absorptive and reflective elements, like concrete floors. The store’s excellent acoustics have made it a desirable location for events managers and studio musicians alike.
“We’ve had incredible interest from the creative community to hold events [at the store], because it’s a really unique space. There’s not many places you can go, whether you’re a podcaster or a musician, where you can get a really high level of sound quality,” says Siegel.
PROJECT SUPPLIERS
Retailer
Sonos, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Design
Partners & Spade, New York
Architecture
Rollmann Architecture PLLC, New York
Visual Artists
Thibaud Herem, London
Mark Chamberlain, New York
Mark Stamaty, New York
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Photography: Spencer Lowell, Los Angeles