Le Soleil D’été Store / Messina

Architects: messina | rivas
Area: 27 m²
Year: 2019
Photography: Federico Cairoli
Lead Architects: Francisco Rivas, Rodrigo Messina
Complementary Projects: Via Facil
Civil Team: Via Facil
Lighting: Studio 220v – Renata Fongaro
Painting: Studio Passalacqua
City/Location: Jardim Paulistano, São Paulo
Country: Brazil

Located within the bustling Iguatemi Shopping Mall in São Paulo, the Le Soleil d’été store by messina | rivas transforms a compact 27-square-meter retail space into a sculptural expression of fluidity and lightness. The project, completed in 2019, was conceived and executed within an intense two-month schedule, responding to the rigid conditions of a mall environment while maintaining the brand’s poetic connection to water. Metallic profiles and clay tiles form a central structure that organizes the interior, evoking the image of an aquatic organism inhabiting a crystalline shell. This innovative composition merges display and circulation, crafting an immersive spatial experience that balances technical precision with lyrical design intent.

For Le Soleil d’été’s new store, architects Francisco Rivas and Rodrigo Messina turned a highly constrained retail unit into a poetic narrative of movement and material transformation. Set within a trapezoidal volume only six meters high, the project reimagines the standard mall store as an expressive microcosm of natural metaphors. Water, long central to the brand’s identity, becomes both inspiration and structural idea, guiding the spatial organization and atmosphere.

The architects interpreted the commercial context as a “crystal aquarium” in which each store represents a distinct ecosystem. Within this metaphor, their response was to create a “crab-like” structure — a metallic frame of six slender pillars supporting a suspended storage volume clad in clay tiles reminiscent of fish scales. This central body defines the space, giving shape to a compact yet layered environment where every functional element integrates organically. The staircase, display racks, counter, and fitting areas radiate from the central structure like reefs attached to underwater rocks, merging functional necessity with sculptural form.

Despite the project’s small footprint and accelerated timeline, the architects achieved a rare synthesis of efficiency and imagination. The play between industrial materials and handcrafted finishes enhances the sense of fluidity that defines the store’s identity. Lighting by Studio 220v and finishes by Studio Passalacqua contribute to a refined chromatic balance, reinforcing the impression of an environment shaped by light, texture, and reflection.

Le Soleil d’été’s São Paulo location becomes, through this interpretation, more than a point of sale. It stands as a compact architectural statement about adaptability and transformation — an evocative reminder that even within the rigid boundaries of commercial architecture, design can articulate narratives as fluid and resonant as water itself.