Carbon Studio
Johan van Hasseltkade 205B
1031LP Amsterdam
Carbon Studio
Johan van Hasseltkade 205B
1031LP Amsterdam
We first find out who you are, and then translate this into a spatial experience that offers freedom of use.
We seek and are sought by those with guts, willing to explore their potential and take an authentic stand. The scale is irrelevant; we are triggered by content, not by size.
Studio Carbon is an Amsterdam-based strategic spatial design agency. From strategy to rollout and execution, we trigger your autonomy by uncovering your authenticity and potential. The project dictates the team; we collaborate with specialized designers and researchers, carefully selected according to the projects’ requirements.
Founded in 2017, Studio Carbon is owned and run by Pieter Kool, graduated Industrial Design Engineering from the TU Delft, the Netherlands. From 2004 to 2017 he worked for G-Star RAW as Global Creative Director 3D Design & Development, designing +1000 stores and Shop-in-Shops, +40.000m2 office space and trade fair pavilions - which resulted in the title ‘Engineer of the year 2013’ awarded by The Royal Dutch Association for Engineers.
Pieter is an energetic speaker and motivator. He frequently delivers keynotes on topics including brand development, retail trends and design strategy
Clients
Ace&Tate
Bugaboo
Barts
BMW
Coef Men
Columbia
G-Star RAW
Nike
OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Secrid
Studio Molen
The Butcher
The Entourage Group
Timboektoe
Toni Loco Pizza
Van Moof
Vitra
Lined with antique stores and galleries, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat is a swanky street known for top-notch craftsmanship. This inspired us to turn a common, humble material into something as valuable and delicate as a porcelain vase.
The project briefing was to envision a perspective on sustainable retail design for Ace & Tate. We choose not to look for the usual suspects; hip sustainable materials with an ‘eco look’, but to research industrial processes to find which have a valuable sustainable story to tell. We love it when materials, which are regarded as bland, commonplace or even cheap, are crafted into something of value. For this project we choose wavy sheets of corrugated steel, a very thin yet strong material due to its cleverly engineered shape. These sheets form a design language that’s rooted in post-modernist art and pairs perfectly with the earthy yet vibrant waves on the walls. The metal sheets have a low footprint compared to other materials commonly used as interior claddings and can be easily recycled. Furthermore we researched ways to create a space with circularity in mind. The furniture is made of 100% recycled chipboard, and we used non-toxic glues and low-impact veneer and paints.
Quality is about care, not abundance
images by Wouter van de Sar
Coef Men Utrecht
Multibrand store located in the oldest residential building in The Netherlands.
Location: Oudegracht 114, 3511 AW Utrecht, NL
Size: 250m2 m²
Delivery: May 2020
Project collaboration with Kuub Architects
Photography: Maarten Willemstein
With the first multibrand concept store for Confetti, Carbon Studio created a premium, but personal shopping experience. The store is a hub for the local community and offers an inspirational, rich sensory environment – the essentials for contemporary brick-and-mortar retail. The highly textured space has a modular design, made of a sustainable mix of re-used and easy-to-recycle materials.
Confetti is an upper-mid to premium mens’ multibrand store, a small, 250m2 department store frequented by the local fashionista scene. Because of its’ role in the local scene, hospitality is one of the main drivers for the design of the store. The owners run the store themselves, curate the collection and host on-site events. Hence, a well-equipped bar is positioned centrally in the space and serves as a hub for social encounters and personal service.
The spatial setup is a sequence of neutrally toned gallery areas and two large interventions - the curved terracotta wall and the blue zone – both with an amplified materiality and use of colour. The gallery areas are a toolbox of modular aluminium profiles and perforated sheets – easy to reconfigure. Additionally two high modular shelving units with vertical lighting are added to the gallery set
Over the years, the building had become a patchwork of several extensions and restorations. Especially the right side of the space is a clutter of walls, columns, staircases, etc. Now, a terracotta wall smoothly winds itself around the chaos and organizes the flow into the store.
Round shapes, ranging in scale from architecture to furniture details, create a soft flow through the store and balance the bare, highly textured materiality of the space.
Recycled and locally sourced materials are dominant in the design. For example, the wall-facing luminaires are recycled from suspended office ceilings and locally recycled, low-grade aluminium is used for the shelving. The curved wall is cladded with leftover lots of terracotta floor tiles - with the back side facing forward to hide mismatches, but also to amplify the textural qualities of the material. When new materials are used, they’re designed for reconfiguration to extend their life-cycle, and for easy separation to ensure after-life recycling.
A pleasant men’s department store for premium multi brand Coef Men.
In contrast with the brutalist concrete hull, refined circular elements are introduced, resulting in a clear-cut interior with a balanced atmosphere.
Building:
The store has a façade of twenty meter wide, at the Haarlemmerstraat in Leiden, and is embedded in a street full of small ornamented shop facades. Nine concrete columns dominate the square 400m2 concrete hull.
Concept:
Physical shopping should be a rich physical experience in which your senses are activated.
• Coef men is a curated men’s department store centred around personal attention and quality service. A welcoming gesture is made with the wide space around bar, cash desk, seating elements and fitting area. Lavish material use quality and carefully designed and executed details further set the atmosphere for the high level of service.
• Maximum contrast between the rough, cold, and orthogonal concrete hull and the warm, refined, circular interior elements intensify the shopping experience.
Facade:
The twenty meter wide facade consists of glass alone, turning the store into a display case. In every window segment another department of the store can be viewed.
Interior:
Contrast has been sought not only with the sober concrete hull, but also in luxury levels of furniture elements. The premium collection needs no more than a modest socle, but the zones for people have been lavishly materialized.
An undulating twenty-five meter long maple wooden wall passes through the concrete hull that was stripped to its constructive essence. The wall starts as sneaker wall with 75 illuminated alcoves integrated. It flows into the fitting area, which is the most warm and intimate zone of the store. The undulating wall with integrated doors separates the public and private parts of the fitting zone.
A flexible and minimalistic furniture system is developed for the integration of mirrors, seats and accessory presentations. The concrete columns carry the large round presentation plateaus as if they are trays
.
Result:
With this project Carbon Studio and KUUB aim for a shop interior that celebrates physical shopping as a personal, social, tactile immersive experience. They utilize the benefits of the store location and quality of the existing structure in a design strategy with real materials and a flexible building system. Resulting in a comfortable shopping experience with clear-cut architecture
Toni Loco Pizza
Locations:
Delivery: Oct 2018, March 2019
Photography: Lesley Weitjes
The interior of the G-Star Raw HQ was a classical Total Design project: everything was custom designed into a single integrated interior. ranging from office furniture, wall systems, pantry's, boardrooms, to design studios.
The main theme of the project was maximization of flexibility. Every interior items can quickly be moved and reconfigured to form new design studios, prototype areas, meeting rooms , team areas, etc.
Location: Joan Muyskenweg 39, 1114 AN Amsterdam, NL
Size: 16.000m2 m²
Delivery: Jan 2014
Photography: Lesley Weitjes
Office furniture series and Home furniture series, based on designs by modernist designer Jean Prouvé.
Reissues of a selection of furniture and lighting that was originally designed for offices of French industrial companies by Jean Prouvé in the 1940s. Some items have never been produced before. Working with the designer’s family and Vitra, all pieces in the collection were reinterpreted to work in today’s modern offices, including accounting for increased human height, modern production methods, EU certifications and functional elements like height adjustability and e.g. cable management. Prouvé RAW Office Edition and the Prouvé RAW Home Editions are made up of 23 pieces that stay true to Prouvé’s designs while bringing them into modern times.
project: Vitra Prouvé RAW by G-Star
Delivery: June 2015
Collaborators: Vitra & G-Star design team
Photography: a.o. Lesley Weitjes
Columbia has a strong reputation in outdoor performance wear and is very credible in this market. For the Zalando Bread & Butter Berlin B2C Event, the brand expanded its reach to the world of lifestyle as well, which brought exposure to a new audience.
The Zalando BBB was a great platform to reach a lifestyle savvy audience in Europe. With the recent resurgence of sportswear and outdoor in the fashion world, it allowed for a natural bridge to tell the rich stories and innovation of Columbia, but with a fresh modern twist.
We were briefed to come up with a brand activation that could create PR buzz for Columbia in this event. The idea had to be smart, create impact and spread-ability for a relatively humble budget. From past experiences, we knew that most brands had bigger investments with larger stands and spectacular digital experiences. So we were looking to do the opposite.
When everyone in the fair went digital, we chose to go analogue. We felt that there was something irresistible about creating a stand that people could have a hands-on visceral experience. Like going to a fun fair, no one could resist a paintball shooting range Inspired by that idea, we created and carefully engineered a fully functional catapult system that allowed participants to customize t-shirts through shooting paint.
During the fair, sure enough, it attracted a lot of attention and people started queuing up to join. Equipped with multiple GoPros attached in the shooting cage, we were able to share the experience through various social channels.
Client: Columbia
Location: Bread&Butter, Berlin, GER
project: Activation at Zalando Bread&Butter Expo. Identity, Concept, Design, Engineering
Size: 80m2 m²
Delivery: Sept 2018
Collaborators: Superlarge
Photography: Lesley Weitjes
Concept, design engineering of global flagships stores for G-Star Raw
Locations: London, NY, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, LA, Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, a.o.
Private interior for houseboat in Amsterdam. The boat is one of the most energy efficient homes in NL and is part of the sustainable SchoonSchip project in Amsterdam. The most striking element is the spiraling staircase, which organizes the functional zones within the house. The stairs are constructed from Russian birch multiplex. The multiplex was CNC milled and constructed and later craned into the houseboat on site.
Location: Schoonschip Amsterdam, NL
Size: 180m2 m²
Delivery: Jan 2020
Collaborators: John Kusters Architect
Photography: Arjan van de Vegt
The Precinct 5 project defines the Carbon Studio design philosophy. Design should be an approach that reflects the tendencies of our contemporary society - under the influence of the media and rapid technological developments, our world, our lives and the way we interact with each other are increasingly characterized by speed and in a state of constant flux. Creating an intelligent system that allows for change and adaptation is the core of the Precinct5 project.
The client was the owner of the Patta sneaker store in Amsterdam, aiming to extend their reach into men fashion. The brief for this project was “create a squat-chic multifunctional space with retail at its core. Oh, and the budget is next to nothing”.
The former police station was stripped to the constructional core and an anthracite concrete floor was added. Electrical pullies were installed on ceiling beams as well as a grid of connective joints on walls and floors. The grid is based on the 4 elementary functional needs of retail: 21cm for stairs, 42cm for seating, 84cm for counters and 126cm for hanging clothing. Interior elements are the 130 modular, 3D connective frames form the building blocks for the space. Additional functionalities like mirrors, fitting rooms,, stairs and signage were all placed on wheels. The conditions for an evolutionary fixture playground were set, producing formations rather than forms.
Location: Singel 459, 1012 WP Amsterdam, NL
Project: Retail. Concept, Design, Execution
Size: 350m2 m²
Project collaboration with Kuub Architects
Photography: Marcel van der Burg
concept, design and interior props for G-Star Raw fashion shows and events.
locations: Berlin, NY, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris
collaborators: G-Star design team
photography: Lesley Weitjes
Concept, design, excecution of global trade fairs.
Locations: Bread&Butter Berlin, Coterie NY, Pitti Florence, Who's Next Paris, CIF Copenhagen, CHIC Shanghai, Project NY, Tokyo Design Week, etc
Size: ranging form 50 to 2500m2
Photography: Lesley Weitjes, Max Sabander, e.a.
concept, design, engineering of 3 generations retail concepts. furniture portfolio management.
400+ monobrand locations worldwide
1500+ brand corners worldwide
Location: Kind&Jugend Fair, Cologne, GER
Size: 350m2 m²
Delivery: September 2019
Project collaboration with Kuub Architects
Photography: Philip Kistner
we are triggered by content, not by size
details: various projects worldwide
details: various projects worldwide
details: various projects worldwide
details: various projects worldwide
details: various projects worldwide
Lined with antique stores and galleries, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat is a swanky street known for top-notch craftsmanship. This inspired us to turn a common, humble material into something as valuable and delicate as a porcelain vase.
The project briefing was to envision a perspective on sustainable retail design for Ace & Tate. We choose not to look for the usual suspects; hip sustainable materials with an ‘eco look’, but to research industrial processes to find which have a valuable sustainable story to tell. We love it when materials, which are regarded as bland, commonplace or even cheap, are crafted into something of value. For this project we choose wavy sheets of corrugated steel, a very thin yet strong material due to its cleverly engineered shape. These sheets form a design language that’s rooted in post-modernist art and pairs perfectly with the earthy yet vibrant waves on the walls. The metal sheets have a low footprint compared to other materials commonly used as interior claddings and can be easily recycled. Furthermore we researched ways to create a space with circularity in mind. The furniture is made of 100% recycled chipboard, and we used non-toxic glues and low-impact veneer and paints.
Quality is about care, not abundance
images by Wouter van de Sar