CAMPER opens a new store at Opéra Paris A new space in the heart of the City of Lights
Camper Opéra has inaugurated a new retail space, designed by Italian architecture firm Piovenefabi, offering a fresh interpretation of one of the French capital's most iconic locations. Located next to the main entrance of the Palais Garnier, the store fits into the monumental urban landscape of the Opéra district, one of the most striking outcomes of the transformation of Paris envisioned by Baron Haussmann in the 19th century.
The project responds to this historical context through an architectural intervention that connects the existing building to a new spatial experience. "The Haussmann façade provides a flexible structure. The double-height entrance establishes a dialogue with the scale of the city and the majesty of the Opéra," said Giovanni Piovene, founding partner of Piovenefabi. The store creates a retail space that encourages interaction with passers-by. "Rather than treating the shop window as a boundary, the project conceives it as an interface between the city and the interior," explained Giovanni Piovene. "We wanted to extend the public experience into the retail space and vice versa. For us, entering the store should feel like stepping into a hand-drawn sketch."
The functional elements, including the cash desk, stockroom access and display cases, were designed to deliver an optimal visual and retail experience for the customer. Hand-painted, the central fixture is composed of continuous yellow and red lines that follow the movement of the floor plan, transforming the architecture itself into a drawing, as Ambra Fabi, founding partner of Piovenefabi, explains below. "Made up of freehand lines, it was painted directly onto the wood by hand, rather than mechanically printed."
Installed on the street side, a monumental tilted mirror, inspired by the traditional mirrors found in Parisian bistros, extends the experience beyond the store by reflecting the city as well as the movement of visitors entering and leaving the space. This new opening brings together the relationship between product, architecture and urban environment in a coherent and functional way.
