Client: Endorphin Republic
Author: deyl-šesták-architekti
Year: 2018
Photo: Filip Šlapal

Mountains upside down

Do you want more from life? Do you give sport the maximum? Do you try to push your boundaries each day? Then you may not want to buy your new bike or ski helmet in a regular store.

The Endorphin Republic brand has opened a new sales space in Waltrovka, Prague, for all demanding athletes, in which architects Marek Deyl and Jan Šesták from the deyl-šesták-architects studio played a refined game with shapes, perspective and optical illusions.

When designing the interior, the architects were freely inspired by the mountain landscape, which they reversed in a mirror image, so that the mountains grow from the ceiling. Mountain massifs are applied visually both in the mass of stylised ceilings and with a more subtle composition of luminous stands, which refer to the mountains in a more graphically abstract form.

And because bikes and other sports equipment usually have a distinct colour, the interior is tuned to muted shades of grey and brown to make the exhibited products stand out as much as possible.

Bikes, skis and snowboards are displayed on a system of overlapping platforms, which, like the floor, are covered with a carpet to soften the impression of a large space.

The whole interior is remotely inspired by a mountain landscape, which is mirror-inverted. Mountains grow from the ceiling. The perfect stylisation and evoking symbolism is then illustrated by the composition of luminous stands hanging also from the ceiling, which are graphically used as silhouettes of mountain massifs.

Marek Deyl
architekt

For a unique interior with a number of platforms of various shapes, which serve as a stage for the exhibited goods, it was necessary to find a material that could withstand the expected high traffic in the commercial space and, at the same time, will fit well with the character of the exhibited products. 

The Fletco COM 1000 contract carpet was chosen as the material for the floor and all raised platforms, which meets all the necessary requirements for the traffic class, non-flammability and other parameters. 

From the ten available colours, mostly darker shades of grey, black and beige (cobblestone, charcoal grey, jet black) were chosen. Irregular shapes were carved from them, which were then joined into larger units.

Due to the variety of shapes, it was also more difficult to glue the carpet to the platforms and install moulding on all the edges. We are pleased that everything turned out to the satisfaction of the architect and the investor, and that we can be part of other joint projects.

Carved ellipses in the carpet

In the second showroom of Endorphin Republic sports equipment located in Karlín, instead of plastic stands, they reached for round shapes carved directly into the carpet. Irregularly concentric ellipses have several different shades and the pattern on the floor is just so pronounced that it does not disturb the exhibited goods.