La Putri @ The Mandarin Gallery

Re-imaging a luxury jeweller.

When Trika was first approached by award-winning architect, Lim Cheng Kooi of AR43 practice to design, fabricate and install a series of bespoke retail cases for a local jewellery shop in Singapore’s famous Mandarin Gallery, little did we know that this was not an ordinary request.

Founded by a socialite in the 70’s, La Putri is a local brand of jewellery with a sprinkling of boutique stores around the famous Singapore’s Orchard Road belt.

Having understood that the brief called for several departures from the standard museum conservation showcase, the result was a radical re-interpretation of Trika’s display cases using museum-grade production for a retail expression encompassing 65 frameless Cube and Look-Down cases in water-white security glass that are made specifically to display premium jewellery of mostly jade, diamond, sapphire and semi-precious stones.

Display cases must open effortlessly and seamlessly as with Singapore’s hyper-efficient retail operations.

Unlike a museum showcase, retail cases are opened regularly, up to 50 times in a single day. By Singapore’s fast-moving retail standards, jewellery display cases must be easily opened by predominantly female sales staff. Trika incorporated customised high-security ABLOY locks into all of these retail cases.

Differentiated by a wide range of sizes and opening mechanisms, 20 numbers of these bespoke cases were installed against a round column pillar which acts as a central key feature of the 2000 square foot retail space.
Flanked by the shop front entrance, a crucial customer impact area, three seemingly weightless showcases of varying proportions cantilever outward, creating a visual conundrum towards the main shopping walkway. The architect designed a support system comprising fist-sized scoops of wood blocks that extends all the way from floor to ceiling.