London designer Louisa Grey has curated a series of meditative spaces inside the Copenhagen store of Danish lifestyle brand Frama, for an installation inspired by the body's five senses.
Louisa Grey – who heads up her own London studio House of Grey – curated the Senses installation for Frama using a mix of the brand's furnishings, scents, and objets d'art, in an attempt to form a "deep, multi-levelled" sensory experience.
"We live in a world where overstimulation from the daily routine, online interactions, consumerism and a shortage of time – let alone downtime, has become evidently depleting," explained Grey.
"Our studio philosophy is based on values that are key to developing a contented life. We continually ask ourselves this question: what should life be like and how do we want it to feel to each of us?"
"For the concept of [the Senses exhibition] we considered our philosophy and how this could be woven with our friends at Frama and their thought process," she added.
Upon entering the Frama store, which occupies a 19th-century apothecary in Copenhagen's Nyboder neighbourhood, visitors first encounter the scent room.
It features a series of light-timber plinths topped with shallow trays of sand or gravel. Inside, bottles of the brand's perfumes and fragranced candles are openly displayed amongst rough chunks of stone.
An adjacent room is arranged in the style of the library or study, which Grey intends to draw on the sense of sight.
Narrow wooden shelves dotted with books are mounted on the walls, complemented by a natural woven rug and simple box sofa.
Towards the rear of the store is the taste space, which is styled as a kitchen with timber cabinetry and crockery-lined bracket shelves. At its centre is a marble-topped breakfast island and a row of high stool seats.
It looks through to the hearing room that's kept dark with mottled grey walls and brass shutters in front of the windows, allowing visitors to re-focus attention to their immediate surroundings.
The nearby touch room is anchored by a large basin, which is meant to reference daily manual tasks like bathing or washing dishes.
"It's about integrating slow living into our lives and sometimes making things inconvenient or a bit difficult, rather than everything being so efficient," Niels Strøyer Christophersen, founder of Frama, told Dezeen.
"In those breaks, we actually connect with ourselves."
Upstairs on the first floor, Frama has worked with architect Mathias Mentze of Studio 0405 to expand its existing offices into the building's former living quarters, where the apothecary resided with his family and two servants.
As well as extra space for the brand's growing team of employees, there are now also meeting rooms, a photo studio, gallery space and two guest-suites where international business clients can stay during visits.
Surfaces throughout have been stripped of wallpaper and left in a patchy, unfinished state, while doors and window frames have been freshened up with a coat of "antique white" paint from Norwegian brand Jotun.
"One of the visions for the project was to respect the history of the building, but on the other hand have a modern design business able to function here," explained Christophersen.
Louisa Grey's Senses exhibition was unveiled during 3 Days of Design, an annual event in Copenhagen that showcases the best of the Danish design industry.
The 2019 edition also saw furniture brand Hay debut its latest collection inside a decadent 18th-century palace, and architects Bjarke Ingels and Simon Frommenwiler collaborate to create a bright-pink house installation.
Photography is by Rory Gardiner.