INTO is boutique retail architecture’s response to global fashion, ubiquitous branding, and the placelessness of modern metropolitan shopping malls.  The 700 square foot space is situated within the exclusive Palais Renaissance along Orchard Road in Singapore, INTO’s internally-activated, box-like form analogues the mall’s own isolation from its broader local context. Discrete outlines of peculiar objects and perverse scenes—which comment on politics, war, labor, sex roles, violence, and lust—are embedded into the sandblasted camouflage pattern adorning INTO’s aluminum skin, which wraps the entire store.  These allusions convey a subtle opposition to the typical decontextualized, apolitical milieu of high-end shopping.

Internally, the architecture engages the ideas of ‘ornament’ and ‘display’ through its accessories showroom and storage space.  The boutique showcases the collection using six highly-detailed glass vitrines, that are suspended, cantilevered, and erected from each surface.  The aluminum skin folds over itself to form spatial niches, which are used for seating and storage.  Other materials, such as the sandblasted aluminum and green tinted glass, are omnipresent materials; the locally harvested teak wood adds a sense of place.