Location: Beijing, China

Designer: Anyscale

Client: Uni_Joy

Floor Area: 1800 Sq-M

With a shop-in-shop area, Anyscale reimagined the traditional mall, turning interstitial space into the main attraction.

On the fourth floor of the Joy City shopping mall, a 1,800-sq-m shop-in-shop space for multiple young local brands, dubbed Uni_Joy, recognizes the role of shoppers' sense of discovery and overall experience in increasing sales and deepening brand loyalty. Commissioned by the mall, Anyscale drafted an irregular plan that groups individual stores around a lively party space.

To emphasize the party theme, allusions to the dance club environment include elements like a bar, DJ table and violet LED lighting displays – all atypical in a mall setting. Design lead Karin Hepp also wanted to make customers feel as if they were floating in outer space, so the team used air-blown aluminium foam the same light but robust material used in aircraft fuselage to clad most surfaces. Garment displays and artworks suspended from the ceiling add to the sense of weightlessness.

The choice of one overarching colour in two leading materials – the ceiling and walls' aforementioned grey aluminium foam and grey terrazzo flooring – invokes a glossy luxury. More importantly, it provides a neutral environment in which to frame each colourful storefront, guiding the gaze of shoppers. In this simultaneously sleek and playful, neutral and vibrant environment, the area between the stores becomes the primary driver of consumer's curiosity.

This space is featured in our title Learning from China: A New Era of Retail Design. Get your copy here.