Interior and retail · 2024

Optical Frames

Exploring the intersection of sight, space and reflection.

Location: Mica Mall, Kish Island, Iran
Principal architect: Mohammad Gholami | Zahra Gholami | Babak Nasirabadi
Design team: Sanaz Goodarzi | Mohsen Rafiei | Rojan Moghim | Armaghan Rahimi
Phase one developer: Mohammad Gholami | Zahra Gholami
Visualisation and presentation: Mohammad Gholami | Mohsen Rafiei | Zahra Gholami
Phase two developer: Babak Nasirabadi
Client: Mica Mall
Construction and supervision: Mica Mall Group (Azadeh Ghiasinejad)

Site area: 98sqm
Design year: 2024
Status: Built

01Question

Question statement

How can a store gaze back at the people inside it, so that every visitor becomes part of the scene?

Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's notion of the gaze, mirrors act as a visual bridge between spaces. Customers see themselves and the products from many angles, and the store becomes a place where sight, reflection and interaction merge.

Beyond the surface: mirrors, depth and layers

01Question

Question statement

How can a shop window stop being a hard edge and become the whole store?

Instead of a conventional display wall, horizontal tunnels open on all four sides of the space, lined with mirrors. Reflections deepen the field of view and let inside and outside be read together, so the entire store works as one moving display. The thickened edge becomes an in-between space for waiting and sitting that marks the entrance, while its depth forms the eyewear shelves. The boundary is no longer a static divider but a visual bridge that lets visitors experience street, threshold and interior at once.