onion fills bear garage with illusory cabinet of toy figurines

onion fills bear garage with illusory cabinet of toy figurines
images © wison tungthunya
all images courtesy of onion

lining the garage interior with an L-shaped cabinet full of be@rbrick figurines, thai architecture and interior design firm onion has created an entire gallery space where guests can experience artworks and collectable items such as cars, paintings and wine. based on the idea of a store front window, the customized display case accommodates 97 be@rbrick toys of three different scales. juxtaposing tightly packed areas with more open, fluid ones, the structure is separated into two pieces of differing lengths to create an optical illusion. the shelves along the extended side of the cabinet are increasingly set wider and further apart – eventually doubling in size across the entire span, with each one individually customized – the tiny bears lined along these shelves appear progressively smaller as a result.

the bear garage entrance with the brightly lit bear cabinet clearly visible

the best position to view the collection is in the middle of the garage where the entire case can be observed. the shorter side of the unit is organized around a much simpler shelving system, with the objective to display as many figurines as possible, tightly packing them next to one another. within the limited 4.8m high space there are at least 70 sitting on the racks. the two cases are united as both are brightly lit and white, with LED strip-down-lights and led strip-up-lights.

the garage is turned into a gallery space with toy figurines and cars on display

spot-lights are used to enhance the visual distortion, as well as thin lines and transparent glass to make the space appear deeper. the geometric case folds in various angles and a steep slope extends across the inside of the frame, projecting various shadows throughout the garage and transforming it from somewhere just to store cars.

the cabinet is divided into varying proportions to create an optical illusion of the bear’s sizes

the shorter part of the cabinet with tightly packed figurines

the longer side of the cabinet has more space between the bears

front view of the display case

looking inside the cabinet

view from wine room

plan layout

elevation

elevation

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