Glasgow-based music retailer Fopp has opened its largest store to date, in Manchester.
The 8,000 sq ft (745 sq m) store, which costÂŁ1 million, is the company's 15th outlet and trades over two floors. It is also the second Fopp store to include a bar.
Chris Stewart Architects are responsible for the store design, featuring a frontage similar to a mini cinema with a neon-lit overhead canopy.
As shoppers pass through the door, a glass floorplate provides views of the basement.
Project architect Andrew Cardwell said: 'When Fopp took the unit over in November it was a restaurant-bar for Cosmopolitan magazine and had a sort of nail bar in the basement. It is a strange unit in that it has a very small ground floor and a very large basement, so it was important to improve access and to give shoppers a view. That's why the glass is there.'
Cardwell said there is a 'large timber element' to the store, using a hardwood from Junckers called Sylvaket. The material is deployed 'down the side of the stairs and into the bar, where it is used for a lot of the furniture', according to Cardwell.
The store features a high-gloss floor and sprayed enamel plays a major part in the design. Fopp's signature yellow is used in a canopy above the ground-floor cash desk and extends downstairs to the bar.
Walls are painted white and there are a number of feature panels, including one fashioned from black laminate with recesses containing Live Edge cubes from Perspex. These 'take in ambient light and glow'.
Store fit-out was by Bentleys and store equipment was provided by Red Displays.
In another first for the retailer, a standalone Fopp bookstore opened this month in Cardiff.
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