MoMA Design Store SZ

Shenzhen, China // 深圳, 中国

2018 // 250 sqm

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Located inside the new Design Museum in Shekou (recently designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki and backed by the V&A Museum) the shop is dedicated to display a wide range of selected items provided by MoMA Design Store, together with art pieces from contemporary Chinese artists and some design furniture from renowned international brands.

The site has no direct light coming from outside but is characterized by a large corner shopping window facing the inner courtyard that provides the main natural illumination. Hence the decision of using transparent glass shelves on the window-shop and to enrich it with a white structure with round corners that, moving up and down, frames the objects and embrace the entire shop front giving the sensation of a floating display.

The raw surfaces of the existing space have been kept and enhanced by the details of the new design: the round columns are incorporated within the rhythm of the facade structure, while the rough patterns of the existing walls have been rendered more visibile thanks to the new cladding layer that opens up in different rectangular frames, showing the pre-existence in the back and creating shelves obtained by tilting 90 degrees those rectangular shapes. The ceiling and all the pipings have been spray painted in dark grey, while the floor have been realized in polished concrete, with some macro areas paved in timber slates recreating the feeling of a room, and the front-window edge filled up with white pebbles, keeping visitors from getting too close to the displayed objects.

The round column located in the middle of the passage connecting the front and the back side of the shop, has been cladded and hidden behind a prism of mirrors positioned at 45 degrees, making it disappear at first glance and creating a mesmerizing effect of reflections of different areas of the shop.

The white volumes of the display units allow multiple combinations in order to respond with flexibility to any object, item, or furniture that would need to be displayed. The different heights of the displays create a scattered horizon line between the products, and is enhanced by the presence of scattered squared shapes floating in the ceiling, used as acoustic panels as well as a solid surface to mount different kind of lamps and chandeliers.

The innermost part of the store is hosting a lounge area created using the furniture currently available on sale, therefore ever-changing in time. The background wall here is a three-dimensional shelved cupboard featuring niches on both sides of the vertical surfaces, exhibiting house-wares to the public, as well as hosting office-items in the back-door space and storage area, cladded partly with semi transparent methacrylate panels.

“Due to the presence of this store within the Design Museum, our main design intention was to recreate an hybrid space in-between a concept store and an exhibition of design objects, therefore the idea of not using any name or visible logo outside the shop, making it look as part of the sequence of exhibition spaces. Judging by the attractiveness and the popularity of the store among the visitors, we could say we succeeded into it."