Oaken Lab Store

Aug 6

Written by Omar Dahabra

Location: Bali, Indonesia
Year: 2026
Architects: Rantara Studio
Photography by: Oaken Lab

Oaken Lab has opened a new store in Ubud, introducing a multi-sensory destination that brings together artisanal perfumery, hospitality, and community. The space combines a retail boutique with a new concept, The Oaken Stillroom, offering scent-inspired cocktails and non alcoholic drinks alongside a menu of small plates rooted in local ingredients. Conceived as more than a store, the space is designed as an evolving platform for cultural exchange, collaboration, and gathering.

Designed by Rantara Studio, the Ubud store is Oaken Lab’s most complete expression to date, moving beyond retail into a more layered experience that brings together fragrance, F&B, and space as a creative hub.

Ubud’s Creative Quarter
Following the opening of its first store in Bali, in Pererenan - on the ground floor of a red brick building shared with Further Hotel - the Ubud store strengthens the brand’s presence on the island.
Located on Jl. Raya Sanggingan, a cultural corridor home to galleries, design studios, and events such as the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and Ubud Open Studio, the store sits within an active creative community. It reflects Oaken Lab’s intention to contribute to an ongoing cultural dialogue, rather than exist as a standalone retail space.

Ubud’s unique balance of culture, craft, and pace, with a strong connection to history, ritual, and nature - elements that deeply inform Oaken Labʼs approach to scent-making - provide an ideal setting for a second outpost.

Store Design
Designed by Rantara Studio, the Oaken Ubud store explores a dialogue between modern intervention and Javanese and Balinese spatial sensibilities.
Working with an existing structure, the design preserves and reveals original elements while introducing new architectural layers. Within the property’s yard, two temples - a Padmasana (a Balinese shrine dedicated to the supreme deity) and a Sanggah/ Sedana Karang (a smaller family shrine associated with land and prosperity) - are retained, grounding the project in its cultural and spiritual context.

The spatial experience unfolds through a sequence of contrasting environments. A dark, metal-clad first room creates a focused and introspective atmosphere, while a transitional glass passage introduces light and transparency. This leads into a more open, tactile common space, where materials soften and the original structure becomes more present.

Rather than blending old and new, the design allows them to coexist, creating a spatial language defined by contrast, materiality, and atmosphere.

The Experience
The in-store experience is conceived as a gradual shift in pace and perception. It begins in The First Room, an enclosed, textural environment dedicated entirely to scent. Here, visitors are invited to slow down and explore fragrances without distraction.
A narrow glass passage marks a moment of transition, leading into The Common Room, a more open and social space where products can be touched, tested, and worn. Anchored by a communal table, it encourages interaction and shared discovery.

The journey continues into The Stillroom, centred around a large communal table. Here, visitors can sit and extend their experience through botanical aperitifs, cocktails, and nonalcoholic elixirs. The outdoor garden area further extends the experience, offering a relaxed setting for gathering and pause.

The Oaken Stillroom
A stillroom was traditionally a quiet, working space within a home or estate where things were slowly made and cared for. It was used to distill botanical waters and oils, prepare herbal remedies and tinctures, and make preserves, syrups, and other simple foods.
Inspired by this domestic laboratory, Oaken Stillroom introduces a new sensory dimension to the Ubud store, translating scent into taste.
The concept has been developed with long-time collaborators and friends Elemental - a nomadic bar turned F&B consultancy. The partnership is rooted in a shared approach: thoughtful, process-driven, and grounded in quality rather than trend, and reflects a natural extension of Oaken Lab’s philosophy into a new medium.

Together, they have created a menu including small plates and drinks that echo the brand’s sensorial language, using local and seasonal ingredients. The food offering includes dishes such as Jono’s charcuterie with natural pickles, burrata with aromatic herbs and pumpkin seeds, smoked ham tartine with cabe habang and radish, fennel salad with pomelo and bee pollen, and coconut gelato with juruh and candied peanuts.

Drinks are served from eight signature taps, featuring cold brew by Ubud roasters Everhaos, kombucha by Oaken’s neighbour Room4Dessert, Kult craft beer, and a rotating selection of bespoke alcoholic and zero-proof, sugar free cocktails. These include creations such as Savory Woodlands (tequila, tomato, mushroom, cherry wood), Misty Pandan Grove (spiced rum, pandan, coconut, mesoyi) and Golden Forest Hare 0% (zero-proof gin , pineapple, vetiver, rice water). A curated selection of tea and coffee from local roasters is also available.

More than a store
Oaken Ubud is conceived as more than a retail space: it is a place to build community, explore new ideas, and connect with visitors from around the world.

Alongside daily retail and F&B, the store will host a curated programme of gatherings, collaborations, and cultural moments, bringing together different creative disciplines. The space is designed to evolve over time, offering visitors new ways to engage with the brand on each visit. Oaken Ubud marks a shift in the brand’s expansion, moving beyond opening new locations to deepening the overall customer experience. “We want to continue expanding the world of Oaken Lab in a considered way, across product, space, and experience. This means developing fragrances, but also exploring how they connects to other senses, formats, and disciplines. Always with a focus on restraint, materiality, and atmosphere. The goal is not scale for its own sake, but to build something with depth, something people can return to and discover differently over time.” — Cynthia Wirjono, Co-Founder, Oaken Lab. Text description by the architects.

Source:www.rantara.com

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