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Architects: Conran and Partners
- Area: 2300 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Woo Jin Park
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Manufacturers: Louis Poulsen
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Lead Architects: Simon Kincaid
Text description provided by the architects. The new Conran Shop in Gangnam, Seoul is the British lifestyle brand’s first in South Korea. Conran and Partners have evolved the brand experience to create a high-impact lifestyle-led retail environment. The design evokes the atmosphere and drama of a gallery space – rather than that of a conventional store – allowing products to be curated in impactful, eye-catching ways.
The store, specialising in furniture and homeware, responds to the vibrant retail culture of the city and the context of the site. The Conran Shop has partnered with retail conglomerate, Lotte, on this venture and the 2,300 sq m outlet spans the ground and first floors of Lotte’s Gangnam annex building, adjacent to its main department store.
The store has two distinctive identities; the ground floor space is clean and light, combining concrete, steel and glass elements alongside fully exposed services to create a bold ‘lab’ experimental feel, while the first floor presents customers with a richly atmospheric, relaxed ‘club’ feel, encouraging interaction with products and the spaces at a more leisurely pace.
The disparity between the two floors adds a sense of theatre and surprise to the experience, as well as giving variation and depth to the product merchandising.
