The shop on the street level has a triangle form. It is in the corner of a building, at the crossing of two streets. On the basement in the big rectangular room there is a space dedicated for sales. The staircase in horseshoe form with double banisters of brass post, painted metal and of crystal occupies a great part of the boutique on the street level. This are functions as a reception space, an exposition space and a cashier space. In front of the entrance, under a protruding volume there are a wall illuminated from behind and a shelf, almost reaching the shop window. Two high sliding doors in wood close the hanging-cupboards with dresses along the walls. At its side a niche accommodates a cashier desk in two-colored metal, which is a protruding volume in suspension. The double cut in the form of a cross designs the false ceiling above the staircase and accommodates an accumulator of embedded lights. The flights of stairs land on the basement is accomplished in steel Corten which sustains the parapet in crystal plate. In the saloon for sales the cupboard system with sliding doors in natural wood, as high as the ceiling, dresses the walls and hides the fitting rooms. The working desk in enameled steel is protruding, suspended on one of two pillars. A five-meter-long, very thick table in mahogany with its sawn and in red painted edges serves as a display. It is placed on a structure in colored aluminum and on another structure in crystal. The illumination system of diffuse light allows the regulation by area. The built-in double overhead lights design the false ceiling. The floors are in epoxy resin that spreads evenly on its own. In some areas fissured stone is laid ad incertum.

Mode shops in general are very complicated spaces to project. One reason for this is that it is never the architect but the company to choose them for commercial reasons. The other is that they are always in subjection structurally and spatially. Not to mention to the regulations imposed by the bureaucracy. Scarce time at disposal to accomplish the work. The budget. The interference from the stylist, etc. You need to know to focus on all the difficulties and to first deal with them in order to project. It is a really craftsman’s work. Everything is order-made. Everything must be unique and special. Never be similar to what already exists. Each time you start da capo. Each time the battle against time starts again.

In the case Maska, I had to find a connection between two floors of the shop. I had to give a value to the triangular space that has two big shop windows and invaded by a staircase which could not be moved. Spaces over two floors are complicated because you have to invent a staircase as a structural, functional and esthetic element. The staircase at Maska required of all of those who worked together lots of energy and precision. It is completed, using a system of freestanding volumes in steel. They were fixed and then mounted in the yard. A heavy object, not easy to start to work on. The space Maska lives on three important spatial moments: the reception Aiea, the staircase and the large show room. Every inch of the decoration and the technical system of illumination is realized based on the drawing. Infinite details for each thing. Kilometers of technical drawings.