In previous posts we often looked at how science can inspire fashion collections. Yet All Design Studio proves with its latest creation that this discipline can also inspire interior design. The architectural studio established in 2016 by architects and designers from China, France and Taiwan, recently created the concept for the 160 square meters MTS shoe store.
Opened at the beginning of July and located on the third floor of Dong'an Luxemporium, in Beijing, the space features six large cylindrical installations containing pairs of sneakers at the entrance.
In the middle of the shop there is another cylinder with a pair of shoes surrounded by plants, connected to other displays via tubes symbolically "feeding" the sneakers in the shop.
This cylinder is indeed surrounded by incubator-like shelves of sneakers displayed on a grass-like green material. In a way, it is as if the shoes were the product of a biological process that went through three stages - creation, artificial incubation and growth.
The effect with the grey metal surfaces alternating with acid green shades, is suspended between a laboratory and a sci-fi world. The cylindrical boxes were inspired by the petri dish (used in microbiology for the cultivation of microorganisms and bacteria), but the way the sneakers are displayed on a green bed evokes the configuration of Michel Blazy's installations featuring several pairs of trainers used as pots for plants on display on special shelves bathed in hydroponic lights.
All Design Studio is interested in creating innovative, yet functional retail designs that prove inspiring for consumers and resonate with younger generations through codes and images they can relate to. In this case, they combined fashion with science to hint at sneaker symbiosis.
The hope of the design studio is to create desirable environments for consumers who lost their passion for shopping in brick and mortar spaces when the pandemic hit and started favouring digital shopping.
As the Covid-19 pandemic eases (but there may be a new pandemic arriving – monkeypox…), consumers have started looking for more adventurous and exciting shopping experiences capable of establishing an emotional bond with them and All Design Studio has so far provided surreal, intriguing and original concept to attract consumers.
This is not the first time All Design Studio turns to sci-fi environments: they also designed a spaceship-like internal space for luxury boutique Luxēmporium in Chengdu, China, with mysterious tunnels, a 3D-printed sculptural art installation and a futuristic structure representing a time machine.
And the MTS store may be a sci-fi fantasy in a commercial shopping mall, there are actually young designers experimenting with growing sneakers. So, this may not be just an alternative shopping reality for young consumers, but a vision of a (distant for now, yet terrifically intriguing) future.
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