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Architects: Various Associates
- Area: 421 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:SFAP, SHAWN from A&S
From street to avenue. AVENUE & SON is a skateboard brand co-founded by four professional skaters in Shanghai in 2014. The brand’s concept “from street to avenue” carries the pursuit of freedom and individuality, typical of street culture. Guided by skateboarding spirit, AVENUE & SON has become one of the global cultural crazes among youngsters with its street culture-rooted DNA and brand concept. In only a few years, AVENUE & SON has accumulated millions of fans and sponsored more than 20 professional skaters at home and abroad. The brand is dedicated to passing on the spirit of “fearlessness, freedom, and perseverance” to the young generation. In such a context, AVENUE & SON’s first flagship store and street structure park are opened in Taikoo Li Qiantan, Shanghai.
Luxury and streets. Integrating fashion, lifestyle, sports, and art, Qiantan is an ideal city model zone developed by Lujiazui Group, and one of the future core areas of Shanghai. Centering on the concept of WELLNESS, the commercial complex Taikoo Li Qiantan combines longstanding luxury brands with street culture, art with fashion trends, and shows a lifestyle represented by skateboarding. Designed by Various Associates, the first AVENUE & SON flagship store in China is sited at WOODHOUSE in Taikoo Li Qiantan. The store is integrated with the brand’s street-structure skate park, which echoes Oriental Sports Center (“the Crown of the Sea”), both representing the most chill structures in the area. Its relationship with the Oriental Sports Center also makes this site more playful and significant.
The first marble skate park in the world. Skateboarding, as one of the official sports at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, is no longer a street sport unrecognized by the mainstream. Various Associates hoped to break the stereotype that “street equals cheap”. Therefore, the team created the world’s first marble skate park to blur the traditional boundaries between street and mainstream cultures, allowing visitors to focus on the cultural and aesthetic aspects of skateboarding. Furthermore, the park also provides a creative and quality space for products derived from street culture. In the context of current fashion trends, commercial venues are beginning to embrace the street and provide outdoor activity space for brands. Meanwhile, young consumer groups are increasingly taking skateboarding as a fashionable lifestyle. Designed by Various Associates, the street culture-rooted skateboard park in Taikoo Li Qiantan, which gathers many luxury brands, is a response to the fusion of different cultures.
Public-led urban commerce. In order to break the boundary between culture and commerce, the designers tried to strike a balance between luxury and street. Starting from the youth’s passion for sports culture, the team conceived a gathering place for skaters, which is both outdoors and indoors, practical and fun. This marble skate park is a realistic integration of street culture and luxury, and a significant urban public space in a commercial setting. The street-structure park carries multiple functions for skateboarding, leisure, cafe, and pop-up activities. The outdoor marble kiosk is a coffee and beverage area, and the bronze AVENUE & SON logo is inlaid into the stone by traditional craftsmanship. The classic street light that represents the brand’s street culture guides the way through the night.
As early as 2016, AVENUE & SON, as the first representative of skateboarding culture in China, started engaging with consumers in pop-up stores, and expanding the boundary of skateboarding culture through diverse activities. 7 years later, the brand has not only attracted the attention of skaters, musicians, artists, and other groups but also has become the preferred choice for young people. On behalf of Chinese skateboarding culture, it has interacted with many brands from around the world, such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fred, Off-White™, and Palace, to convey new ideas.
Design language from outdoors to indoors. “When we asked the founders of A&S where they thought the best skate park was, their answer was ‘street’. As observing their daily activities, we found that steps, fences, and even small ramps on the street were the skate tracks they loved and excelled at. Therefore, as approaching the design, we did not adopt the curved slope commonly found in skateparks but applied straight and oblique lines, which are more rigid, to interpret the elements of the street with an aesthetic language, and meanwhile to avoid safety problems caused by curved spaces,” Various Associates explained.
The traditional metal folding door at the entrance is a reminiscence and continuation of the old streets. The delicate metal slats imprinted with the brand’s logo create a striking contrast to the contemporary architecture in the commercial complex. The two staircases, together with a slight slope in the middle, recreate familiar scenes on the streets of Shanghai. The appropriate height makes it possible for skaters to glide on the structures and also enables customers at the entrance to get a better view of products displayed at varying heights.
The core ramp element in the interior space originates from skaters’ daily street routes. Skaters can skate through the interior to the outdoors, which creates a special experience. Unified ramps and spaces indoors and outdoors, curved handrails, symmetrical upper and lower slopes, as well as tracks on the ceiling resembling road markings, are meant to integrate street elements with the brand’s DNA and spatial aesthetics, thereby producing a unique, appealing destination that is classy yet popular. Inspired by the way that streets' names are marked, the side part of the stairs is imprinted with the brand’s logo, birthplace, and time of establishment, which echoes the DNA of streets.
Display of product diversity. Based on the brand’s street-rooted DNA, the AVENUE & SON flagship store is a creative platform that connects with the street skateboarding community. Its product design, models, LOOKBOOK shooting, video production, and promotion campaigns were all contributed by skaters. Video is necessary for recording this cool sport, so the large screen displaying the brand’s creativity is the soul of the space. Behind the screen is the clothes display area, where customers move along a circular circulation route, which ensures the visibility of all products and facilitates responsive product introduction services. The closed circulation route bypasses display stands of varying heights and forms, to separate display areas for shoes, hats, clothes, and skateboards, hence realizing more efficient shopping experiences. Other functional areas such as the waiting area, storeroom, and fitting room are also hidden behind the large screen. The backside of the screen is an A-shaped steel frame, which extracts the “A” letter from the brand’s name. Under the steel frame is a seat, which can also serve as a temporary garment display.
The core ramp is not only a pop-up area for cross-brand collaborative activities but also a stand for presenting skateboards and other products. It can also be used for graffiti or graphic display. This inclusive and neutral “blank” area provides flexibility for collaborative events between A&S and other brands, enabling various brands to fully showcase their attitudes. Abundant oblique lines generate rich visual effects, and mirrored surfaces create multiple reflections which are visible to customers from various angles. Opening the hidden storeroom and fitting room doors, another mirrored world dominated by oblique lines comes into view.
Skaters' night. As a leading Chinese skateboard brand, AVENUE & SON is developing a unique perspective of Chinese skateboarding culture. From street to avenue, the brand remains free and diverse, growing unrestrainedly. In addition to meeting commercial demands and fitting into the brand’s positioning, this project is more significant as a space for cultural exchanges based in a commercial complex. Creating an open and inclusive space in Taikoo Li Qiantan, enables people of all ages to enjoy skateboarding and get to know the fun of skateboarding culture. On the other hand, the presence of the skateboard brand brings more vitality to the commercial complex. It’s available for use both in the daytime and at night. As night falls, it injects vigor and young energy into the city.
