UK designs brighten Shanghai store windows

UK architects have partnered with local and international retailers to create temporary installations in Shanghai store windows.

For the third year running, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London has created original and thought provoking temporary architectural installations around the city’s upmarket Xintiandi shopping and entertainment district.

The cross-over art exhibition is a partnership between RIBA London, Shanghai Xintiandi and the Culture and Education Section of the British Consulate-General.

Among the installations:

• Arup Associates with Pizza Express created an outdoor installation that celebrates the art of pizza making – motion of stretching the pizza dough for Pizza Express’s 50th Anniversary.

• Draisci Studio with Barcodes – have designed faceted blocks that smile and seem to come alive with eyewear on.

• CTHM X INDJ with the support of BuroHappold Engineering and the lighting department at WSP with Fountain have created an ethereal river of light that seemingly floats, flows and falls from the upper windows of a restaurant.

• Mobile Studio with Giftique created a design which draws upon the meteorological qualities of the season and will coincide with the launch of a new green tea.

• Squire and Partners with Maria Luisa used distorted hand crafted marble sculptures inspired by the artistic process of creation and decay.

• Opensystems with NN have designed Dice, a sculptural installation which resembles  primitive crystalline formations and marks the entrance of the store.

• Urban Systems with PH7 created installation referencing material systems in nature, fabricated using low-cost and 3D-printing technologies, using a biodegradable plastic made from renewable resources.

• Amin Taha Architects with Rubis Spa flooded the spa podium lobby to chest height, capturing the blue mountain lakes of Switzerland where Rubis SPA was born.

• RCKa with Tayohya created a cathedral like entrance to the busy home wear store, redesigning the space with an optical illusion using the brands own knitted vinyl products.

RIBA president Stephen Hodder said the Shanghai Windows project offers members a unique opportunity to gain invaluable experience working in China, to work with Chinese and global household name clients and demonstrate their skills to a design-savvy Chinese audience.

“Our exhibition will be seen by over 1 million visitors, helping to demonstrate why British architects are renowned around the world for their creativity, ambition and flair.”

Carrie Liu, GM of commercial in China Xintiandi said the project will enhance the unique shopping experience at Shanghai Xintiandi and create a platform for crossover communication, further inspiring creative talent in Shanghai.

Also launched, and running throughout the Xintiandi district, the ‘Through the Shop Window’ photography exhibition uses some of the RIBA Collection’s rich archive to tell the story of the evolution of British shopping trends over the last century.

RIBA Shanghai Windows runs until runs until May 31.