OTOTO Victoriei

Authors’ Comment

Ototo (“younger brother” in Japanese) is the first grocery/market/concept store in Bucharest selling only independent brands, from food and drinks to cosmetics, as well as books and sustainable lifestyle items. Ototo on Calea Victoriei is the bigger brother out of the three brand’s stores and marks the growth from a grocery shop into a loved lifestyle brand. It is a three floors flagship store.

The “installation” of shelves is made in plywood of small section such assembled to gain maximum strength on the smallest section. The section as well as the assembling convey a Japanese type of structure, coherent to the name and values of the brand. The same type of section solves flexibly the needs of supporting the signage, the coat-hangers, the lighting system, fans and cable management but also the balustrade, mirror frames, handrail and bar structure and also two plywood replicas of Rietveld’s Blaue chair.

The space is in a Communist period building characterized by bad finishing and irregularities. The shelves system thus also becomes a cost-effective solution installation to bring unity and coherence to the otherwise irregular architecture that remains in the background.

Central to the beauty and skin care room is another installation which is a sink for testing products but mostly doubles as a sculptural water feature as in proper urban public spaces, making people revolve around it in their way to the next spaces. Its playful anthropomorphic, cactus or octopus shape of metal bend pipes has a round mirror instead of a head and “hands” to offer the testing products, soap and towels.

Similarly, the first room in the sustainable lifestyle section has a consistent coffee bar in the middle which acts also as pay point, exhibitor and social aggregator for a community sharing the same values and relaxing near the library section.