Year:
2023
Manufacturers: ColorCasa, Gabriel, Maharam, Tabu, b:space
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Lead Architects:
Yifan , Mengjie, Mengying
Text description provided by the architects. Conveying the brand’s character and narrative and seeking breakthroughs through the use of spatial design language, the full integration of aesthetics and commercial retail functions has been achieved. Sò Studio also echoes ZUCZUG’s philosophy of continuously providing customers with high-quality products and strengthens ZUCZUG’s “equality” and basic concepts of “life and imagination” to present a relaxed and interesting attitude towards life for all the patrons.
Inspired by the Open Market, ZUCZUG Bazaar not only serves as an extension of the wardrobe, but also presents the assembly store as a public space, filled with freedom, openness, diversity, and the joy of treasure hunting. ZUCZUG Flat simulates a girl’s wardrobe and employs the cloakroom as the theme to collect the beauty and joyfulness in daily life, making customers feel as comfortable as in an apartment.
01 ZUCZUG Bazaar Xiamen. A bazaar, also known as a market, is the earliest comprehensive shopping place in human society. Divergent products are scattered throughout various stalls, equally open to everyone.
By traversing in the store, one could enjoy the shopping process accompanied by activities such as wandering, and socializing with each other while the items obtained are used for daily life.
Even today, when the shopping mall experience is well established, the experience of visiting the market is still irreplaceable and has developed into a more extensive form of commercial space. Entering the dazzling entrance, one can discover that the 180-square-meter space encompasses 7 different stylish brands under ZUCZUG, which were arranged independently while corresponding with each other. This is not only a brand-new appearance after multiple independent brand stores of ZUCZUG have taken root, but also another innovative attempt by Sò Studio for retail space.
Structure creativity. Connect people with the market closer. The thoughts behind market space are not only based on the designer’s solid academic accumulation in architecture and design but also depend on the designer’s observation and experience of urban public spaces.
The chief designer likes to capture inspiration from architecture. While studying in Italy, they traveled around the city markets to feel the vibrant energy endowed. When traveling in Thailand, they wandered around the local semi-open markets and felt the infinity of a semi-open space; the markets along the Seine River used freely retractable boxes as the main structure of the stalls; the markets in Mexico retained the traces of construction, and using wood and metal as the main building materials. All of these inspirations provide nutrients for the innovative design of ZUCZUG Bazaar.
1-1 Structure and proportion. Scale always affects the relationship between space and people. The display and shopping experience, whether free and comfortable or relaxed and enjoyable, are both within the scale. The entire ZUCZUG Bazaar is constructed with natural Japanese maple and hollowed-out metal as the main structure. The proportion of different display items is coordinated between the high and low levels, but it is filled with joy, achieving the proper spatial division of different brands.
1-2 Straights and curves. There are no redundant decorations, starting from the texture of each wooden board, making the best of geometric softness and strength. The use of softer wood grain curves, combined with the circular cutting of the board edges, perfectly neutralizes the dominant linear structure. Roundness replaces edges and corners, bringing warmth and security to the space.
1-3 Flexibility and diversity. Form and function, like the exterior and interior of architecture, are not antagonistic but rather lie in a harmonious and flowing relationship. As a B corps enterprise, ZUCZUG emphasizes the sustainability of spatial components. Therefore, Sò Studio has conducted a lasting experimental process through repeated testing and improvement, each item is endowed with more possibilities. The hidden mechanism is like a giant building block game, with just a few changes, it can generate new combinations that are capable of handling flexible and diverse display scenes.
1-4 Outdoor and indoor. As a store that accommodates a variety of brands, ZUCZUG Bazaar offers daily clothing like Klee Klee, as well as outdoor sports brands such as An Ko Rau.
The client’s brief called for a space that could eliminate the boundary between outdoors and indoors. The street fence has been transformed into a shelter for shoes, of which the size and position of the board were adjusted in a comfortable and coordinated structural proportion. A small display chair resembling Maza, and a movable island platform are reminiscent of a temporary camping retreat. Hollow metal seats that can be seen everywhere on the square are also placed next to display racks, with light penetrating through and leaving shadows on the ground.
Mosaic. Part and whole jigsaw puzzle. How does color play a role in dividing space? The designer draws the mosaic picture through calculation and assembly. From the welcoming mosaic “come in” at the entrance, the bright yellow mosaic island platform, to the green mosaic walls distributed in the An Ko Rau area, as well as the iconic mosaic smiling faces and mosaic-shaped display platforms, the colors complete the entire space with a three-dimensional graphic identity. It seems to be also announcing the lifestyle emphasized by ZUCZUG Bazaar – lively, land interesting.
When the lamp is hidden in the light. If architecture is a living space, then light is the flowing blood. Between light and darkness, hiding and revealing, closing and releasing, light gives the space emotional weaves, either calmness or flow. It embraces everything in the space and dissolves between structures.
In the invisible space of the lamp, the light does not disappear, bringing light to the space. Even without the presence of lights, it can create a dazzling entrance. When the light appears, the attention of one’s eyes are also drawn. Flexible spotlights are embedded into the track, ensuring that the display of commodities is always under the spotlight. Wandering around ZUCZUG Bazaar, one can feel the light as an invisible design, constantly embellishing a relaxed and joyful spatial atmosphere.
02 ZUCZUG Flat Shanghai. ZUCZUG Flat is a new type of assembly store that provides various products including clothing, and accessories which enrich daily life. Brands include ZUCZUG 4M36, Klee Klee, An Ko Rau, ZUCZUG, WHM, Kwanyza, Usually Dream, etc.
A shopping experience casting comfortable apartment feeling. Flat means “apartment” and “equality”. The apartment is the fundamental space of everyday life; the flat also has the concept of fairness and equality. Through the simulation of a girl’s wardrobe, exploration of the dual meanings of flat, and the needs of people, Sò Studio uses the cloakroom, unlike a traditional shop, as the design theme to show the fascinating and beautiful items found and collected in daily life to express the joyful storage methods and relaxing and free lifestyle.
Different elements of the cloakroom are elaborately applied to different corners of the store so that customers can meander around in the store comfortably like in their apartment and discover the beauty of daily life. Sò Studio outlines the dedicated display space such as the hanging area, stacking area, and accessories area through rational design of the space. It makes full use of every corner of the space to provide a spatial layout with a clear functional layout and good accessibility, which shows the ideal cloakroom type.
Transforming daily necessities with fun. Every design detail in the simple and elegant layout such as the flexible wooden furniture and accessories, louver-inspired cabinet, and “working lamp” fixed on the ceiling conveys a sense of comfort and serenity, as well as reflects “flat owner’s” sense of discovering more fun aspects with life.
Customized panel system: modular hanging system. Sò Studio customized two overall systems for the flat store. The first system transforms the louver blades into a modular hanging panel system applied to the central island cabinet and facade. The modular hanging panel system enables each panel to change independently into a plain board, clothes hanging rod, layer board, hanging rope, sliding door, etc.
Customized panel system: metal plate buckle system. The second system is a specially designed metal plate buckle system that fully demonstrates the free and unique aspects, as well as the user experience. The system can be replaced according to different scenarios and requirements, which is applied in the store entrance, display window, and fitting room.
Through interior design, Sò Studio aspires to respond to ZUCZUG’s concept of constantly providing high-quality goods for life and strengthen the value of “flat” and the concept of “life and imagination” endowed in the brand, to convey a relaxed and joyful attitude to life. “Architectural design is a kind of creation from scratch which creates a new spatial experience through insights into people and life.” For Sò Studio, every piece of design is to start a new narrative and re-write the story of the space while not defining its style, nor being limited by style.
Architecture is also a container for life. Good architecture always cares about the inner needs of its users. As the contact between people and space, people and people, and people with the outdoors becomes more difficult, we also need comprehensive commercial spaces like markets to create more diverse experiences. The relationship between commercial space and people goes beyond shopping, it can also become a place of inspiration for life outside of one’s residence.
