When it launched in Japan in 1980, Muji had a simple ambition: to achieve the extraordinary through the deliberate pursuit of the pure and the ordinary. A generation later, Muji has exported this design philosophy to numerous countries around the world, instilling both aesthetics and ethics into its products and its retail presence. When Muji looked to establish its brand in Australia, it asked DKO to design its flagship Chadstone store.

In keeping with the brand’s minimal aesthetic, DKO adopted a range of neutral tones and raw natural materials for the store, such as recycled oregon timber and locally-sourced bluestone. Alongside timber and stone, it also features a fitting room lined on its exterior in acid-dipped steel sheets, which lend it a further sense of tactility and crafted materiality.

As that great modern minimalist Mies van der Rohe once said, ‘God is in the details’, and DKO’s role extended to every last detail of delivery. Once the store’s fit-out was complete, the DKO team quite literally helped stack the meticulously planned shelves.

Poised somewhere between the look-at-me spectacle of Aesop and the stack-em-high utility of IKEA, this flagship store by DKO combines lean functionality with an eye for the elegantly well-made. In a shopping centre better known for shiny surfaces and pop glam, DKO has created a modest and restrained interior that is a perfect brand ambassador for Muji in Australia.

MUJI extended DKOs commission for a further two stores; in Melbourne’s Emporium and in Sydney’s the Galleries shopping centres. Whilst keeping with the MUJI pallette of materials to ensure brand familiarity, DKO have developed each store with its own specific identity through complimentary feature materials and installations, such as steel and recycled timber.