LOCATION
Salt Lake City
STATUS
Built
DESIGN TEAM
Daniel Kaven, Partner-in-Charge
Trevor William Lewis, Partner-in-Charge
Max Taschek, Project Designer
Andrew Heathfield, Staff Designer
CATEGORIES
Retail Environment, Pop-Up Installation
PUBLICATION
Domus
Portland Monthly Magazine
NAU
Salt Lake City, Utah
For the 2014 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, William/Kaven designed a steel A-frame exhibition environment for Portland-based sustainable clothing company Nau. To echo the Earth-friendly, practical bent of Nau’s product lines, W/K used some of the most sustainable possible building materials and emphasized airiness to let in plenty of outside light.
“The initial concept we came up with was for a mountain retreat-type structure,” says W/K Partner Daniel Kaven. “The entire structure needs to be able to break down and ship, which really goes with the ethos of NAU, as steel is really easily recyclable.”
“For the pop-up installation for the outdoor apparel brand Nau, William / Kaven designed a steel A-frame structure that would provide dramatic shelter and extend the aesthetic of Nau’s angular lines into the architecture. The concept behind the project is to host a trunk show in the comfort of a modern mountain retreat.”
“Some designers might turn this brief into an aesthetically cold and Spartan building. Kaven and Trevor William Lewis seized an opportunity to embellish those elements that make the Pacific Northwest great. By letting in large amounts of outside light, and utilizing some of the world’s most sustainable building materials—the recycling rate of steel bests any other building material, at 98 percent—the NAU structure offers a warm and surprisingly natural look to go with its conceptual and physical brawn.”
