Next Door Pharmacy

Wondering why a pharmacy needs to look and feel like every other pharmacy led Next Door Pharmacy to an epiphany. The independent Baltimore pharmacy focuses on delivering customized services, so they broke from the status quo to offer a unique, second to none experience.

Critical to this concept, the space offers a fresh take on the classic typology of the pharmacy by dissolving the delineation between over-the-counter and prescription areas. Visual connectivity between pharmacists and patients facilitates the mission to provide friendly, fast and personalized service.

The minimalist architecture of the store declutters the otherwise busy visual impact of the many displayed products. To create a simple, clean yet playful aesthetic and simultaneously satisfy a wide range of lighting requirements, variants of Fluxwerx Portal fixtures were chosen. Offering a consistent design aesthetic in multiple sizes and seamless architectural integrations, a combination of 9” Portal Recessed, 5.5” Portal Semi-Recessed, and 9” Portal Pendant luminaires in white powdercoat finish was utilized. 

The unique adjustable Semi-Recessed Portal luminaires are well-suited to retail environments as an elegant solution for illuminating merchandise. Yet Portal offers much more than a differentiated design aesthetic—the exceptionally narrow, 0.5” optic of Portal delivers precise control and extraction features shape the light into high performance distributions with maximum visual comfort and efficacies up to 150 lm/w.

Complementing the exceptionally narrow, 0.5” optic of Portal is  Profile Mini Frame, a 4’x4’ suspended geometric frame that mimics the work stations below in the prescription area while providing a focal point for the pharmacy. With an aperture of 1.5″ and no horizontal lenses or diffusers, Frame also offers maximum design flexibility, delivering quality light with a comfortable visual experience and exceptional performance. 

If wellbeing and a sense of calm are the hallmarks of the pharmacy of the future, then lighting is as integral to the formula as any other aspect of its design. A seamless, clean and minimal aesthetic makes sense to create just the right backdrop for what is too often an overloaded information and sensory experience. Careful design, planning and execution has turned this, and an otherwise straightforward open retail plan, into a better, richer and layered experience that sets Next Door Pharmacy apart.

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The Fluxwerx fixtures are a distinctive presence in the space, prompting patients to often look up and comment on their singularity. The bright, beautiful and comfortable quality of the lighting makes me want to walk into the pharmacy in the mornings.

- Hanna Badr, Owner, Next Door Pharmacy
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Market: Retail
Client: Next Door Pharmacy
Architecture: VAS / Violeta Fiorino-Schwartz
Lighting Design: Ambiance Lighting, Inc.
Photography: Tom Holdsworth