Kit of Parts: Bassike Byron Bay by Akin Atelier.

A decade is a long time in retail design, where fitouts are routinely stripped and skipped inside five. Akin Atelier has been building Bassike’s physical identity for longer than that—across a run of stores, concession sites and a head office—which makes the new Byron Bay store less a debut than another entry in an unusually long conversation.

The design brief started with restraint rather than a blank canvas. Original concrete floors stay. Ceiling services stay exposed. Existing infrastructure was retained wherever possible, cutting construction waste before a single new material entered the equation.

What holds the rest together is a system. “We approached the store design as a sort of kit of parts, distilling the concept into a series of modular shapes, objects and materials that can be reinterpreted across different applications,” says Kelvin Ho, Founder & Director of Akin Atelier. “This, paired with sustainable material choices, felt closely aligned with the values Bassike seek to uphold.”

That kit-of-parts logic is the quiet achiever here. A modular vocabulary that travels between sites gives each store a family resemblance without forcing sameness—and it means components can be reconfigured rather than binned when a fitout reaches the end of its life. Retail interiors are among the most disposable things the industry produces. Designing for reinterpretation is a more useful answer than most.

Materially, the palette leans warm and domestic. Deep reds and rich chocolate tones, cork, woven textiles. Furniture is a considered mix of Australian design and international vintage—a sofa from Byron Bay’s own Tigmi Trading, display tables by Henry Wilson, cork stools by Jasper Morrison for Vitra, a custom rug by Beni Rugs and a vintage Vico Magistretti lounge chair. Bassike’s minimalism is intact; it’s simply softer at the edges.

The most interesting piece of joinery is also the least glamorous on paper. Australian company Defy developed two custom-coloured recycled plastic panels exclusively for the store, manufactured in Sydney from post-consumer plastic diverted from landfill. Cork does similar work—harvested without felling trees, carbon-negative, biodegradable, and durable enough to earn its keep. Local trades round it out, with construction by Byron Bay’s Urban Spaces Building Co. and steel fabrication by Na Mathie Steel Fabrication in nearby Binna Burra.

“Opening in Byron Bay feels like a natural extension of Bassike,” says Deborah Sams, Founder & Creative Director, drawing the line back to the brand’s Avalon home. Two coastal towns, similar temperaments. On this evidence, the kit travels well.

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[Images courtesy of Akin Atelier. Photography by Jessie Prince.]