The Eye Piece has opened its fourth store in Sydney’s EY Centre, designed by Ricci Bloch. The store combines general optometry with a dedicated Lindberg shop-in-shop, occupying a double-height tenancy on George Street.
A seamless blend of identities
Bloch’s design challenge was to create a space that felt intimate and distinct without closing itself off from the surrounding city. The result is a store that acts as an extension of the public street, reinforcing a unique sense of place. The tenancy can be approached and viewed from several directions, so the interior needed to read coherently through the glass while maintaining visibility across its two main components.
The brief required the two identities, The Eye Piece and Lindberg, to remain distinct without feeling divided. Bloch achieved this by using a material palette drawn from the EY Centre itself, including clay render, timber, brushed aluminium, and mirrored glass. The cork floor was selected for its practical benefits, reducing the likelihood of damaging eyewear frames and moderating the acoustics of the glazed interior.
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A delicate balance of form and function
The store accommodates a substantial functional load, including retail display, general optometry services, consultation spaces, and back-of-house functions. Bloch’s design had to create enough display capacity without filling the open tenancy with visual clutter. Mirrored surfaces extend views and conceal working functions, while freestanding and perimeter displays maintain openness through the center of the floor.
A notable feature of the store is its suspended mesh ceiling, which establishes a more contained scale beneath the tall tenancy. It floats above the display areas, creating intimacy without blocking views through the shopfront or concealing the full height of the space. This design choice is reminiscent of other retail spaces that aim to balance openness with functionality, such as retail design strategies used in high-traffic urban areas.
The dedicated Lindberg area introduces its own joinery language and material identity but remains visually connected to the rest of the store. Existing structural columns were retained within the plan and finished in Venetian plaster, allowing them to sit naturally alongside the rendered joinery.
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Sustainability and technology integrated
Technology and sustainability were central to the brief, reflecting the building’s requirements. The design folds these considerations into choices around materials, adaptability, and the relationship between the tenancy and its existing structure. Rendered joinery recalls the sandstone reused within the building’s entry foyer, creating a visual link between the tenancy and the larger development.
The result is a unique retail space that defies conventional categories. Its material contrasts, layered reflections, and suspended ceiling give the interior a strong presence, yet it remains open to the movement and scale of George Street. As Bloch notes, the store feels “delicately seamless from outside to inside,” as if the fit-out grows lightly from the site.
