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Architects: CASE PAVILION
- Area: 160 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Di Zhu
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Lead Architects: Zhenyu Yang, Danjie Yan
Text description provided by the architects. When “in the PARK” reached out to us, their multi-brand boutique on Anfu road had been in operation for three years and a half. While their brand identity and architecture had become increasingly coherent, they encountered some functional issues in the physical store space. They planned to, within the shortest timescale and leanest construction manageable, extract as much productive potential of the store as possible: maximize the overall quality of the space, diversify the modes of display, expand the storage capacity, improve shopping routes, optimize the lighting, and so on. Picture the store at the time as a back alley in the urban center of a rapidly modernizing city: limited land (store floor plan) faced with continuing population (SKU) boom and increasing needs (diversifying brands and products) of its citizens. With misplaced items like packaging materials all over the space, the storage and merchandising were eating into each other. The brands, yet to be integrated, competed for limited display capacity.
To study the establishment and the problems they were facing, we began the project with a thorough census of their existing SKU, inventory, and particularly voluminous packaging boxes. After consolidating all the overflowing boxes and taking their measurements, we decided to design additional high-density display units which function both as storage and display. Corbusier's design of a series of residential unit complexes, from the Domino prototype to the Unité d'Habitation of Marseille, is a forward-looking exploration of social housing typology. He allocated the public and private spaces in the building with fairness and rationality and gave the apartment suites doubled ceiling height and generous openings.
We had in our mind socialist mass housing, the prefab panel blocks. A switch-flexible, lightweight structure, as an extension of the megabuilding, introduces sufficient natural light and ventilation to every household. The blocks house an impressive amount of residents within a limited area while optimising their connection to the outside world. As a result, the fully industrialized aluminum profile system becomes our top choice. It can form a composite structure of modules that services various display designs. The prefabricated display modules are assembled in front of the storage units. When the panel of one of these double-layer units flip down, the height (depth) difference between the layers creates a gap through which light passes. There are multiple display combinations by simply opening and closing different storage units.
Bringing a functionalist approach throughout the project. we integrate the constructive rationality of civil work into commercial interior design. With the backyard and the two four-meter wide glass panels in front of it as a backdrop, we quite naturally come to a display rack made out of space trusses for hanging. The truss structure is span- and weight-efficient, yet strong enough for hanging heavy clothing. The elimination of freestanding racks gives way to an unobstructed view of the outdoor space, incorporating the backyard into the store. The truss structure also allows for a variety of hanging display arrangements for clothes to be viewed from the front and the side in three different depths.
Distilling from our everyday encounters in the urban landscape, we transform and reintroduce textural details in the park: the glass door and windows are installed as point supported and hidden frame curtains; the industrial tri-proof lights are reminiscent of the flood lighting commonly found in parking lots and gymnasiums; the streets lamps trigger a path down the memory lane; the metal bricks imbedded in the cement brick floor refer to manhole covers everyone in the city… As the renovation wraps up, the fences in the backyard built three and a half years ago have been removed. The rusted steel bike shed, air conditioning units of various sizes, and the moss-covered ground have come out of the backstage and become part of the ensemble. No matter how hectic the urban life becomes, in the park, we continue to observe and build the micro-public scene.
