Only one-and-a-half years after opening the first in the PARK store in Shanghai‘s fashionable Xintiandi area, an event we’ve covered in a previous post, parent fashion company Zuczug has inaugurated a second retail space in the city. The company has secured a sizeable 500 sqm. (5,382 sq.ft.) location a few blocks west in a fast emerging part of the neighbouring Jing’an district. Occupying three floors of a modern building, the retail space is designed by local practice AIM Architecture. For the interior design, ample cues were taken from the somewhat bland architectural characteristics of the neighbourhood, resulting in a series of subdued and seemingly low-key settings. Chinese parks with their idyllic winding paths have been another source of inspiration, spawning a chunky staircase and walkway that fills up the double-height ground floor and evolves into a suspended mezzanine floor. And that’s not all. Standard park objects in parks can be found in tweaked form on the premises, while fibreglass, commonly used for slides and park playthings, has been used for the chunky staircase.
Additionally, rubber lining, asphalt-like flooring, and other traditional outdoor materials have been repurposed and circular park seating now serves as shelving. Another playful element in the in the PARK store is the fitting room which is inspired by Dutch street furniture, while other elements, such as the clothes drying poles, street signs, and bamboo chairs outside on the terrace reference Shanghai street life. Speaking of which, the seating area here is anchored by a large circular planter seat, obviously crafted from fibreglass to tie in with aesthetic indoor, referencing a traditional Chinese garden’s prerequisite fish pond. The new in the PARK store is concepted as a mini department store with a predominant focus a savvy young male clientele, stocking a not only curated range of men’s apparel, accessories, shoes, and bags, but also books and magazines, and vinyl records. Mind you, the latter section, called sound_in the Park, also accepts donations and allows record exchanges for students, it’s the first of its kind in Shanghai. The ground floor is home to a coffee shop managed by the popular Tequila chain, serving various classic coffee concoctions and drip coffee, a place where to sit back in between shopping sprees or meet with friends.
in the PARK
98 Yanping Lu, Shop 101 (Jing’an)
200042 Shanghai
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
