LMTLS creates canyon-like SKIN1004 flagship store in New York

Located in New York’s SoHo district, the second flagship store created through the collaboration between SKIN1004 and LMTLS challenges the conventional logic of retail architecture. Rather than prioritizing sales efficiency alone, the project reimagines the store as an immersive environment where visitors can experience the brand’s philosophy through space, atmosphere, and movement.

As flagship stores increasingly evolve into cultural destinations, combining retail with exhibitions, events, cafés, and community programs, the SKIN1004 NYC Flagship embraces this broader transformation. The project seeks to give architectural form to the brand’s defining concepts of “untouched nature” and the “brown landscape,” creating a spatial narrative that extends beyond commerce and into memory.

Visitors are invited to move through an environment designed not simply to display products, but to communicate a worldview. The architecture becomes a medium through which the brand’s values can be experienced directly, transforming the act of shopping into a sensory journey.

At the center of the project stands the Nature Wall, an irregular sculptural form inspired by the geometry of natural valleys. Running through the length of the store, it functions as the primary architectural gesture and organizational spine of the interior.

More than an expressive installation, the Nature Wall integrates multiple functions within a single continuous element. Seating, display systems, storage, and retail counters are absorbed into its topography, allowing the interior to operate through a unified architectural language. By consolidating diverse programs into one spatial intervention, the design eliminates unnecessary visual noise and establishes a strong sense of coherence throughout the store.

The result is an environment in which architecture and furniture dissolve into a single landscape, reinforcing the project’s ambition to translate nature into built form.

Typical SoHo retail spaces are often constrained by narrow floor plates and limited spatial depth. To challenge these conditions, the design introduces a nine-foot-high Mirror Wall that extends continuously from the entrance to the deepest point of the interior.

Acting as both architectural surface and optical instrument, the mirrored plane dramatically amplifies the perception of scale. Reflections extend sightlines and multiply spatial relationships, transforming the compact retail volume into an environment that feels unexpectedly expansive.

The intervention creates the impression of a canyon-like landscape, reinforcing the project’s connection to geological formations while enhancing the visitor’s spatial experience.

The flowing millwork walls are crafted from custom-formed wood, balancing sculptural expression with construction efficiency. Their undulating surfaces create a sense of movement throughout the interior, echoing the contours of natural terrain.

Lighting plays an equally significant role in shaping the atmosphere. Warm illuminated surfaces are integrated throughout the project, producing a soft and diffuse glow reminiscent of natural daylight. Rather than relying on conventional retail lighting strategies, the store is conceived as a calm and immersive environment where light becomes a spatial material in its own right.

Together, material and illumination create a setting that feels both contemporary and deeply connected to the natural imagery that informs the brand.

The store unfolds through a carefully choreographed sequence of spaces, each defined by distinct proportions and experiences.

At the entrance, the existing second floor has been partially removed to create a dramatic double-height lounge. Evoking the scale and presence of a natural gorge, this volume functions as both an event venue and a gathering space. More importantly, it establishes a ceremonial threshold into the SKIN1004 universe, offering visitors a moment of pause before entering deeper into the store.

Beyond the lounge, the ceiling lowers into a more intimate single-height environment. This transition introduces the Point of Sale area, where visitors engage with products through testing, consultation, and purchase. The deliberate shift in scale creates a dynamic rhythm between openness and enclosure, emphasizing the importance of human interaction within the retail experience.

At the rear of the store, double-height and single-height volumes converge once again to form a more secluded destination. Here, a Photo Booth framed by a twelve-foot-tall mirror serves as both a social-media focal point and a place for quiet reflection. Nearby, a large LED wall continuously presents brand films and visual narratives, ensuring that the concept of untouched nature remains present throughout the visitor journey.

The final sequence combines exhibition, interaction, and contemplation, completing the spatial narrative established at the entrance.

The SKIN1004 NYC Flagship ultimately positions itself beyond the conventional boundaries of retail design. Rather than functioning solely as a commercial environment, it operates as an architectural experiment in storytelling, where brand identity and spatial experience become inseparable.

Every design decision contributes to a larger narrative that transforms abstract values into tangible experiences. Nature is not represented through decoration or imagery, but through space itself. The architecture becomes a medium through which visitors can engage with the brand’s philosophy on an emotional and sensory level.

In this sense, the project shares more with a contemporary museum than with a traditional store. It is a place where visitors encounter ideas, atmospheres, and memories alongside products. Through its synthesis of architecture, narrative, and experience, the flagship proposes a new model for retail environments in which cultural engagement becomes as important as consumption.

Project Credit

Project name: SKIN1004 Flagship NY Store
Location: 470 Broadway, New York, USA
Gross floor area: 9,900 sf
Completion year: 2026
Design firm: LMTLS / @lmtls_architecture
Photo: Sean Davidson (courtesy of the architect)