"A Silvera store is first and foremost a place of culture, where iconic and contemporary design come together".

Designed by Jouin Manku in 2007, the Silvera Wagram store in Paris marked the beginning of a close friendship between Patrick Jouin, Sanjit Manku, Paul and Brigitte Silvera. Patrick Jouin has also designed a variety of objects for French manufacturer COEDITION, which was founded by Samuel Coriat and Paul Silvera.

In 2017, the eminent French distributor sees the opening of his first store over the Channel, on the King’s Road in London’s Chelsea. Paul Silvera called on Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku for the conversion of two storeys of this archetypal London townhouse.

The challenge was to preserve the identity of the brand while clearly distinguishing this new space from the Paris salesrooms. With this in mind, the designers worked to keep the original details of the architecture – revealing brickwork, conserving roof lights and basement lightwells – while giving it all a touch of the theatrical. 

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Wandering down the King’s Road in the heart of Chelsea, passers-by come upon a huge glazed shop front, enticing them in to the Silvera universe.

An exhibition space for a changing range of objects of different scales, the interior architecture has cleverly managed the brief. The store comprises different types of spaces for different needs, accommodating a variety of requirements. 

Visitors come into a large, luminous space, where they are greeted by an imposing object that soars up to the ceiling and structures the entire space. Simple in form and construction, this sculptural structure is made up of articulations of superimposed cubes of thin sheets of stainless steel, folded and soldered together, that hide away the purely functional to reveal the exquisite.

A library of objects:
An invitation into the world of Silvera, bookshelves made of long planks of stained oak run around the walls of the shop, leaving the building’s structural brickwork visible. Bespoke designed, these extensive surfaces are used to exhibit a number of objects. Making the most of the high ceilings, the upper shelves are transformed into lanterns. 

Some 164 moulds, vases, plates and other pieces of crockery picked up from France’s Manufacture de Digoin are backlit behind stretched Batyline fabric to create a projection of their silhouettes. This lyrical display of marvellous objects is a reminder, across the Channel in London, of the history, skill and spirit of French design.

An intermediary space forms a sort of exquisite jewelry box for the display of the most precious objects; this in turn leads on to further rooms, which are bathed in natural light from above. Passing beneath the roof lights, the visitor comes to two salons, designed to feel like a residential interior, which in turn lead to a winter garden, an orangery.

A staircase like a chair display:
A large oak staircase leads off the intermediary space, making the descent down into the basement something quite spectacular. An important architectural feature, the staircase extends out to form a chair display and exhibition area as it comes down into a spacious gallery and a private salon.

The basement lightwells have been preserved and enclosed by glazed flooring to bring light into this lower level, forming eight little alcoves perfect for the display of iconic pieces.

The same materials are used throughout, a selection of minimalist and untreated concrete, oak, felts, Batyline, leather and brushed brass, discrete enough to let the Silvera family’s carefully chosen design objects speak for themselves.