New Nature Store by Salon Alper Derinboğaz: Redefining Retail Through Sustainable Innovation and AI-Driven Design

Reimagining the Future of Retail Spaces

In collaboration with Reflect Studio, Salon Alper Derinboğaz has designed the New Nature Store, a visionary retail environment in Istanbul that explores the evolving relationship between humans, nature, and technology. These experimental spaces move beyond conventional retail design, embracing a futuristic aesthetic, circular production systems, and AI-generated furniture, to reflect a hopeful, post-pandemic perspective on modernism and sustainability.

Working closely with Reflect Studio’s creative director Furkan Temir, the architectural concept imagines a “new nature”—a hybrid realm where recycled materials, intelligent design, and organic evolution converge. At the heart of this transformation is a belief that design can act as a catalyst for ecological consciousness and material experimentation.

Design Concept: Post-Nature, Post-Retail

The design embodies key themes such as:

• Optimistic Futurism
• Upcycling and Repair Culture
• Autonomy of Objects
• Human–AI Collaboration

Each store serves as more than just a commercial environment—it becomes a material laboratory and an immersive spatial manifesto. These spaces challenge traditional ideas of consumption and permanence by employing adaptive reuse and digital fabrication, pushing the boundaries of what a sustainable retail experience can look like.

Material Innovation and AI Integration

Central to the store’s design is the reuse of production waste from both the fashion and architecture industries. Highlights include:

• Recycled Metal Terrazzo Flooring: Waste aluminum is crushed and used as aggregate, resulting in a long-lasting, low-maintenance surface.
• Frozen Textile Stool: Leftover fabrics are bound with resin to form sculptural, functional seating.
• Epoxy Resin Shelves: Plastic packaging waste is transformed into display surfaces.
• AI-Generated Furniture: Inspired by evolutionary patterns in nature, furniture forms are iteratively designed using artificial intelligence, then fabricated with boat-building technology for high precision.
• Water Ripple Changing Room: Created from stamped reflective steel, this disorienting and poetic element questions perception and body presence.
• Green Airplane-Wing Bench: Aerodynamic and lightweight, its carcass structure minimizes material use.
• Sigma Profile Hangers: DIY-inspired, mechanical structures allowing for quick assembly and reconfiguration.
• Changing Pod: A mobile, fiberglass pod with a spaceship-like shell and plush interior for immersive try-on experiences.

Lighting and Atmosphere

The lighting concept plays a vital role in shaping the store’s ambience. Using bidirectional ceiling lights, the interior achieves a dynamic balance between functional illumination and atmospheric highlighting. The adaptable lighting system is designed to counteract the sterility of mall environments, creating a programmable spatial mood that responds to different uses and customer interactions.

Functionality Meets Sustainability

Beyond spatial innovation, the store integrates product personalization and repair stations—such as heat press and embroidery machines—to encourage customers to extend the lifecycle of their products. The collections featured include sustainable sneakers and eco-conscious fashion pieces, further aligning with the brand’s ethos of circular design.

Currently spanning four locations, the New Nature Store is the first phase of a larger spatial strategy by Reflect Studio and Salon Alper Derinboğaz, with plans to expand into office and studio spaces that maintain this experimental, ecological, and technologically integrated design approach.

All Photographs are works of Studio Majo