Bonia's first House concept store wraps 50 years of leather craft in red brick

Design the first House of Bonia concept store at 168 Jalan Bukit Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (206 m²), crafting a monumentality that pays homage to the brand's legacy within the bustle of a mall.

The facade's rhythmic pillars, clad in red brick tiles with BONIA insignia at low level and inverted curved brick cornerstones under canted canopies, give passersby cinematic glimpses inside; the floor plan lays four rooms in rhythmic sequence rotated around a central display node on two intersecting diagonals, with red and orange thresholds, green and pink middle rooms, a burgundy-and-terracotta library, and apertures that layer sightlines between rooms.

Frame Awards: Silver in Single-Brand Store, with a jury average of 7.99 across twelve votes (project published by Frame, 3 June 2026).

Bonia, a Malaysian homegrown 50-year-old lifestyle brand born from timeless leather craftsmanship, opened its first House of Bonia concept store at 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur — a 206 m² space designed by Linehouse to bridge heritage with contemporary expression.

The exterior is conceived as a crafted colonnade: a rhythmic sequence of red brick pillars that deliberately references the traditional street colonnade, lending permanence and acting as a sequential frame offering passersby cinematic glimpses into the interior. The pillars carry the BONIA insignia at low level and inverted curved brick cornerstones, while canted solid canopies extend outward to reinforce the threshold.

Inside, the floor plan reveals four rooms in rhythmic sequence, rotated around a central display node along two intersecting diagonals. The spatial narrative is one of domesticity: visitors move through rooms of distinct personas — a quiet library, an intimate dressing room, a communal lounge. Strategic apertures between rooms enable visual and retail layering, rewarding the wanderer with unexpected moments of discovery.

Colour does the wayfinding: strong red and orange frames with strips of terracotta flooring define the axial thresholds, green and pink line the two middle rooms, and the library is finished in burgundy and terracotta. The display fixtures are conceived as active participants in the retail experience rather than mere vessels for products.

The enfilade — rooms rotated around a central node — turns a small 206 m² footprint into a journey with constant reframing, a layout trick more common in museums than malls.

The red-brick colonnade grounds a mall store in the language of the traditional shophouse street, making a 50-year-old brand feel civic rather than commercial.

Room personas (library, dressing room, lounge) sell leather goods as domestic life rather than product grids.

A Frame Awards Silver with a near-8.0 jury average marks the execution as validated by an international design jury, not just brand self-expression.

Heritage retail works as architecture, not nostalgia: translate the craft legacy into a spatial sequence — colonnade, threshold, enfilade — customers walk through.

The project was published by Frame on 3 June 2026 as a Silver winner in the Single-Brand Store class; no commercial results are recorded.