CARA \ DAVIDE’s Moose Knuckles Showroom in Milan takes cues from Neo-Nature

Habitats featuring a juxtaposition of rugged textures evocative of unbridled natural enclaves and the clean sheen suggestive of industrial materials offer a healthy mix—of the myriad nooks inhabited by humans since origin. They serve as connectors, between the raw, unadulterated lodgings found in the hollow of naturally occurring structures, and the precisely cut and shaped edges and corners of planned urban settlements. In doing so, they also become spaces that ensure the ease of familiar spaces, while introducing our senses to novel visions. A recent project by Milan-based multidisciplinary design studio CARA \ DAVIDE explores the confluence of the old and new, natural and man-made, is their showroom design for Canadian winter clothing brand Moose Knuckles. Designed in collaboration with Motel 409—an Italian creative art direction and product design practice—the showroom in Milan, Italy, is part of Moose Knuckles’s growth strategy for Europe.

“This beautiful space is the next step to solidify our footing in the EU as we continue to expand our business growth strategy for localised markets in the region,” shares Marco D’Avanzo, Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Europe GM at Moose Knuckles.

Moose Knuckles is a luxury outerwear label from Montreal, Canada, that crafts resilient garments for the most severe weather conditions. It has, over the years, managed to become known as a brand with an irreverent spirit and energy, and a relentless commitment to technical expertise and product design. Inspired by the moose, a wild fearless creature that is enormously powerful and built with natural armour on its body, the brand crafts luxury sportswear, outerwear and accessories that can sustain through poor climatic conditions, while still fulfilling aesthetic necessities.

The new 900 square metres Milanese store, designed by CARA \ DAVIDE, encapsulates the daunting spirit of the brand. “The rebellious spirit of Moose Knuckles resonated with our interest in experimenting with unconventional materials, decontextualising them and playing with mass and scale. The result is a mix of three diverse scenarios, each characterised by a distinct physical manipulation of material yet simultaneously merging through the digital influence of altering light effects and LED screens,” shared Cara Judd of CARA \ DAVIDE.

CARA \ DAVIDE, founded and headed by product and interior designers Cara Judd from South Africa and Davide Gramatica from Italy, is a design practice that thrives on experimenting with and merging different materials, techniques and processes that emerge from different locales. Works by the designer duo straddle the fields of product design, furniture design, interior design, and material research and experimentation. Delineating their approach to new projects, the studio shares, “Our process involves a lot of discussion and sharing random ideas of visual input or curious materials that we might have seen or picked up somewhere. We try to develop our ideas individually from the initial inspiration and then come back and share the development. We have diverse ways of working and our individual paces are different so we try to find a way that respects the differences.”

The store design for Moose Knuckles is a multifunctional recreational space, fit not only to house the brand’s products, but also to provide space for the rebellious spirit of Moose Knuckles, to grow and prosper. The design of the store derives inspiration from the concept of Neo-Nature, which is defined as a blend of the wild and the modern. The store design for Moose Knuckles picks cues from the vast, barren landscape found in Canadian Arctic tundra, as well as elements from the technologically advanced locales and the streetwear world. Although located in the design district of Tortona in Milan, it comes up as an anomaly, an exploration unto different landscapes and the style born at their juncture. Divided into three parts, each of which are evocative of different environments, the store illustrates distinct aspects of Moose Knuckles.

The entrance of the store is a white space, cuboid in shape. It welcomes visitors to leave behind their mental predispositions, as well as the urban chaos, and hence, serves as a space meant for mental and physical regeneration. The ceiling in the room, covered with nearly 100 square metres of LED screens, depict celestial movements comparable to the Canadian sky. This alluring spectacle helps one transition from weariness and fatigue to the calmness that comes upon us when in close proximity to nature. One of the walls in the room boldly announces the brand's manifesto with the proclamation 'Find Your Fearless,' hence invoking the Canadian spirit and proclaiming the brand’s presence in the metropolitan world.

The second zone within the store is a portal, a cave-like installation from floor to ceiling. The fabric and resin structure serves as a metaphor for a space of transition, from the artificial world into the real one. It leads up to the third zone of the store, the club.

The culminating space in the Moose Knuckles showroom is the club area—a fluid and futuristic space. It houses a floating monobloc counter—made out of four metres of hand-beaten steel—that is backlit with PVC strips illuminating the space from various angles. The floating counter bears semblance to a meteorite colliding with earth. Further, natural wood strips arranged to go up to the ceiling portray the image of an imagined forest. The custom-made furniture in the store, and the arrangement of metallic sheets on the floor—that appear like reflective lakes—further satisfy this thematic.

Talking about the process of building the store, the designer shares, “Materials are usually the starting point of a project for us. For this interior we wanted to experiment with materials both digital, natural and synthetic. Scale was also an important aspect so we worked with very diverse materials, almost contrasting one another, over large planar surfaces, like a 100m2 led ceiling, a cave-like structure in fabric and resin, a 5m wall in wood which seems to bloat outwards, a recessed bar area completely covered in industrial PVC and the bar counter in distorted steel.”

Moose Knuckles’s store design is a space where CARA \ DAVIDE worked on pushing boundaries, with novel architectural elements and the juxtaposition of myriad textures, some of which are fluid and flowy, like the natural elements they are inspired from, while others that are crisp and clean. The different light effects in the space further accentuate and dramatise the environment, making it, hence, a perfect spot for the brand’s meeting, after hours.