Architectural photographer Leonardo Finotti has sent us images of Coven, a knitwear store by architect Marcelo Alvarenga in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The store, completed in May last year, is a conversion of a two-storey brick house overclad with a metallic mesh in a pattern that resembles knitting.

The brickwork will be rendered a different colour for each new season.

A glazed pergola on the ground floor penetrates the mesh facade and allows natural light to infiltrate the shop space.

Artists Susana Bastos and Ana Vaz were invited to create a permanent installation for the store interior.

Using thread and surplus material the artists produced an in-store display of fabric, vine-like braided ropes.

Photos are by Leonardo Finotti. Here is further information from architect Marcelo Alvarenga:

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This is the first store of Coven, a Brazilian brand of knitwear.

The store is located in Lourdes, a traditional district in Belo Horizonte, where the finest garment and design stores have concentrated in recent years and occupy converted old buildings.

And this was the case of Coven store. Originally it was a two-storey house, with a wide concrete ledge. The ledge allowed for the construction of a metallic mesh, overlying the existing brickwork.

The idea of a mesh overlapping the building came from the clothes themselves. The grid in the façade suggests the idea of woven thread, the raw material of knitwear, superposing a colorful wall that can be repainted every season.

In the interior, the whole space was remodeled. All of interior walls were suppressed, except the stair - an old and beautiful wood work -, and the walls around it, covered with mirror.

On the ground floor, glazed pergola allows for a filter natural light into the store.

The architect invited two artists – Susana Bastos and Ana Vaz -  to create a permanent install in this area, that would suggest a vine, from where garments would spring. In response, they created a white install using thread and left-overs of the materials used in the making of the garments.

PROJECT_dic 2007 to jan 2008
COMPLETED _may 2008
ÁREA CONSTRUÍDA 160 m²

ARCHITECT_ Marcelo Alvarenga
COLLABORATOR_  Luciana Garcia
CONSTRUCTION_ Construtora CRC