A city-centre flagship store

You enter and walk around, dreaming, in search of something special — beauty. And invariably you find it, along with relaxation, well-being and serenity. Opened in July 2013, the flagship store of the leading natural and organic beauty brand Greenglam rapidly established itself as a major wellness venue in the old centre of the German city of Augsburg. With its timeless store windows, it immediately became an icon for the Bavarian city, which was founded by the Romans and flourished in the Renaissance for its trade with the Republic of Venice and the courts of Northern Europe. The store is located in a small, lively thoroughfare close to the Damenhof, an oasis of tranquillity for women in the Middle Ages, and just behind the unique walled enclave built by the Fugger family, the business and trade dynasty that determined the city’s fortunes for centuries. It occupies 500 square metres of a five-hundred-year-old building, a fluid sequence of spaces that includes the spa with its high white elegant sail-like vaulted ceilings resting on solid grey stone columns. Arranged on several different levels, the spaces are clean and uncluttered, enhanced visually by the white walls and the carefully planned layout of the sparse display units and sales furnishings dotted here and there. All of this results in a pleasant, restorative sense of space.
With its sober and occasionally contrasting colours, its high-quality materials and discreet furnishings, and a lighting design based on the use of threadlike lamps reminiscent of an ancient dance of candles, the project is the work of Dreimeta, the renowned German interior design firm of Armin Fischer, who has designed many of the stores of renowned Swiss tour operator Kuoni as well as prestigious hospitality, gourmet and fitness venues. It combines a sense of the past with utterly contemporary decor and reinterprets the existing patrician architecture, transforming the austere simplicity into a warm, harmonious and never intrusive embrace.
The sequence of rooms unfolds with constantly-changing trajectories, lines and dimensions that maintain a sense of continuity thanks to the use throughout of Pietra Jura collection floor tiles from Ceramche Coem. With its neutral beige colour and random marble effects that accurately mimic natural imperfections, the Jura medium and large size stone-effect porcelain tile substitutes the original stone floor to splendid effect.
«It proved to be the ideal solution for recreating an aura of the past and combining it with a texture that is in perfect harmony with contemporary aesthetics,» commented Armin Fischer. «It is a splendidly appealing and modern tile that combines low weight with exceptional toughness and eco-friendliness, ideal for high foot-traffic situations like that of a store.»
The result is a place where both women and men feel at ease, where the professionalism of the sales staff and the warm reception of the spa centre are complemented by the treatments and products for recharging one’s batteries and reviving the body and soul. People who have been here and used its wellness services have described it as an «urban meeting point», a place with positive karma that not only officiates the rites of beauty but also serves as a pleasant social venue. To us it seemed a kind of salon from centuries past, where high society would meet to discuss life, the world and beauty.