It isn’t very often Tehran pops up on our radar when it comes to shopping, in fact, this is the very first time that a newly opened shop there ticks all our boxes. We’re talking Newton Glasses Gallery, an eyewear store in the downtown residential area of Jamshidiyeh. The shop’s location, wedged in between two busy thoroughfares, is quite unique and occupies a single-floor extension of a former bank office building. Encased in floor-to-ceiling glass, the triangular 190 sqm. (2,045 sq.ft.) unit automatically interacts with its surroundings, and features a collaborative interior design by Iranian architects Moein Nikaeen and Babak Nasirabadi which very much aims to retain the spatial relationship between the indoor and outdoor. The proximity of Newton Glasses Gallery to the greens of popular Laleh Park and the renowned Carpet Museum also contributed to the design being potentially suitable for social interaction and as an event space. The décor – read: large suspended black metal shelving units – forms a three-dimensional space within the building, and at intervals, the shelving units have been detached, opening the setting up to the city, allowing passers-by unobstructed views of the interior. By suspending the furnishings, Nikaeen and Nasirabadi were able to redefine a contemporary boundary between spatial layers, as well as achieving the objective of spatial interaction.