Lighting in Design Q2 2018

Layered lighting for award-winning store

When the owner and CEO of Exclusive Books bought the chain in 2013, it was a homecoming to the brand of which he had been CEO in the 1980s. Passionate about books, he immediately set out to deliver his goal of reigniting a thirst for reading and intellectualism.

T he brief to Dakota Design, the interior ar- chitects and retail designers for Exclusive Books at Ballito Junction in KwaZulu-Natal, was clear; design a space that would encourage likeminded patrons "to have conversations" in the store. For centuries, bookstores and coffee shops were spaces where people would gather to share thoughts, debate ideas and start movements that would shape the world as we know it today. For too long in recent history, bookstores have been staid places where people are expected to be quiet and where consuming food and bever- ages is unthinkable. Not so with Exclusive Books. Here, they want patrons to interact with each other and with authors, to listen, to share, and enjoy coffee and a treat. But fundamentality, the space is about books and the conversations they evoke. For Dakota Design it was about creating

the best environment for that vision to come alive in. In essence, no two Exclusive Books stores are the same. Dakota Design’s approach is to deliver stores whose designs have been tailored to suit the space and community in which they exist. Like the bookstores and coffee shops of old, they want people to develop an affinity and sense of belonging in their local store, precisely because it is different from anything else on offer. At the heart of the Exclusive Books store-con- cept lies an ‘old-school’ style library or bookstore with a modern twist, one in which books are piled to the rafters, encouraging patrons to view the experi- ence as one that elicits fond memories of people and places, both real and imagined. The designers want patrons to explore the space rather than view the purchase as simply being transactional. This is achieved by introducing wall racking that reaches

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LiD Q2 - 2018