Light Mark is an emerging Chinese jewelry brand. They hired Tokyo/Shanghai-based Kooo Architects to design their new store in Suzhou, and gave them a specific brief: "As their product lineup not only includes wedding jewelry but also a casual series, we were asked to design a shop that would make people want to drop in while window shopping," the firm writes.

If you think about it, that's actually quite a tricky problem. The firm thought it through carefully and, I think, devised a brilliant solution.

Image: Zhu Runzi

"In a normal apparel shop, you can see the products for sale from outside the store to some extent, but with small jewelry, it is difficult to get a sense of the design of each piece from outside the store.

"Also, the impression we got was that a typical jewelry shop has a glittering interior, with staff serving customers through glass cases. This style is suitable for people with a clear purpose, such as wanting to purchase high-end gemstones, but it felt a little intimidating for people who just want to casually go and look at jewelry.

"We focused on the fact that the traditional way jewelry shops display jewelry, is horizontally in a glass case. Jewelry that is laid out flat in the display case means that you can't see the exact design until you step inside and look inside. To address this issue, we wondered if we could display it vertically, with as much transparency as possible, and attempted to design it.

"The specific approach we tried: Set up an acrylic sheet, 220mm wide x 3200mm high x 50mm thick, vertically, and drill a circular hole with a diameter of 170mm in the acrylic sheet. Three tiny metal pieces for attaching jewelry were embedded into the sides of the hole, and various types of jewelry were displayed. Furthermore, the sides of the circular hole were frosted to make them light absorbing."

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi

"By displaying the jewelry within this ring of light floating in the air, we succeeded in creating an elegant state that gives each piece of jewelry a special feeling."

Image: Zhu Runzi

Image: Zhu Runzi