Since 2008 the Starch Foundation has been providing a platform for emerging Lebanese designers to break into the market through its starch boutique in Saifi Village – one of the arts and culture districts of Beirut.

Throughout their one year stint at starch, the designers are guided through the process of developing their collections and promoting them (communication, marketing, branding and press) as well as getting the chance to participate in design-related workshops, seminars and collaborations.

For the 2014-2015 season, emerging architecture practice GHAITH&JAD Architecture and Design was asked to redesign the starch boutique.

“As architects doing an interior, we wanted to move away from the typical conception of a boutique and try to bring forth the identity of the foundation,” says founder Ghaith Abi Ghanem.

“We wanted to create a dynamic space that holds infinite identities. Therefore the idea of creating non-static entities in the space came to exist. From here, we took the basic hanger into a more spatial dimension that lead us to create structures from a single module creating a three-dimensional web of hangers.

“Through that we achieved our objective of an ever-changing space by designing a tool that allows us to reconfigure its form and the display of clothes instantly. Moreover, the dynamism of the space continues with the mobile spherical light source, controlled by a concrete counterweight on each side, as well as the rotating light heads that focus more light on the clothes.”

The interior installation comprises 186 wall and ceiling-mounted hooks from which 27 brass ‘hangers’ can be attached. A further 54 cube elements serve to connect the hangers turning them into a series of 3D sculptures. These sculptures, on which the clothes are displayed, float above pedestals on a rough white floor, both made of cast plaster.

“All these elements, designed and manufactured by GHAITH&JAD, react within the limits of the space and become a family of inhabitants; a family that turns space into place, place into playground, and playground into starch. Making starch this year not only a store but also a spatial installation that communicates with this year’s designers, while creating a surreal atmosphere of a million identities,” says Abi Ghanem.

Two fashion designers – Timi Hayek and Atelier Jo Baaklini – have been chosen as the starch designers for 2014-2015.