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The central idea for Art Diamond was to blur the lines between retail and gallery spaces, redefining sales rituals by rejecting flashy jewellery store tropes for material economy. The store offers varied levels of interaction and privacy. Initial spaces are open with seating functioning as casual sales points. At the rear, an office defines the store’s most private zone, working as laboratory-workspace and private meeting area. A colonnaded corridor links the store-front and office, with materials shifting from stone, metal and glass to timber and fabric, creating an increasingly intimate scale to build familiarity and security into high-value sales discussions.
Located within a busy shopping centre in one of Malta’s densest seaside towns, Art Diamond offers a spatial alternative to conventional diamond stores, prioritising neutrality and lucid customer flow over ostentation. Art Diamond’s shop-front opens onto the shopping centre’s bustling piazza, encouraging unencumbered, fully accessible entrance and browsing. Its entrance looks onto the shopping centre’s bright plaza, with two large shopfront displays symmetrically framing a focal light pendant and central vitrine, drawing users in through intuitive circulation.
Hard-stone walls and travertine flooring provide textural contrast to slim, monolithic display cases, whilst to the back of the store, backlit curtains imitate a diffused natural glow. Art Diamond’s minimal material palette works to reduce waste and streamline manufacture, with local Gozo hardstone being selected and quarried only a few miles away from the store itself. The brand rejects fast-fashion, favouring quality, enduring products – this ethos reflects in the interiors, with material and composition quality ensuring longevity.
Located within a busy shopping centre in a dense Maltese seaside town, Art Diamond offers an alternative to conventional diamond stores, prioritising neutrality and lucid customer flow over ostentation.
Its shop-front opens onto a bustling piazza, encouraging inclusivity through unencumbered entrance and browsing. The store evokes a museum vernacular, favouring diffused light and spacious browsing areas over crowded product display. Custom cabinets double as spatial landmarks, directing users through curated zones. A minimal material palette reduces waste and streamlines manufacture, with its local Gozo hardstone being quarried only a few miles away. The store’s brand rejects fast fashion, favouring quality, enduring products – this reflects in the interiors, with material and composition quality ensuring longevity.
The store offers varied levels of functionality and privacy. Initial spaces are open, furnished with seating as casual sales points. At the rear, a private laboratory-office offers secluded meeting space. A colonnaded corridor links the shop-front and office, with materials shifting from stone, metal and glass to timber and fabric, complementing a more intimate scale.
Art Diamond functions less as a store as it does a gallery space. Its muted colours and subtle textures pull focus to the precious stones, elevating them to the realm of art in place of product.
The design of the store has been thoughtfully curated around the experience we want customers to have – which is to find a piece of jewellery that fully fits their taste and will do so for years to come. The feeling of privacy and ease that is created through the store’s layout and material selection thoroughly supports this experience.
Valentino Architects is a design-led architecture studio based in Valletta, Malta. We work collaboratively with consultants, contractors and material suppliers to design high-quality spaces and objects, with projects built as tailored solutions through a process of open dialogue. Our work is a study in form, proportion, detailing and texture, characterised by an economy of scale, colour and material. We have built a design approach that prioritises collaboration and is driven by social, environmental and urban impact.
Our team is non-hierarchical, working to deliver architecture that is user and context driven. As a studio, we have a growing interest in alternative urban development and sustainable solutions. We work to inform our design, ideas and concepts through writing, research and active industry participation.
