The renewed shoes retail area was originally a semi-closed 890sqm area.
The main point in this renovation was to give more visibility to the products but also to make the circulation within that part of the mall smoother for the clients.
The concept of “Gravity and Magnetism” was born from the reflection on how to induce the customers' behavior and actions while respecting the client's requests.
With stores and alleys both on the east and west sides, it was impossible to use the usual L-shaped or U-shaped stands and shelves to fill in the space and expose the shoes to the visitors. This would not only limit the visibility of the tenants stores around and the shoes shelves themselves but create a psychological wall preventing customers from looking behind the shelves and see all the exposed brands. It would also make the circulation difficult and inconvenient within the area.
GARDE decided to break the pattern that can be seen in many Chinese's malls by using spherical shelves and round stands to make the circulation smoother and not hinder the visibility of the merchandise.
The concept of gravity is expressed by the shelves being the planets and the customers the comets. They approach the planets, orbit around them and then smoothly go onto the next planet. The rings near the ceiling represent the planetary rings system.
The area being an open space makes it difficult to stock the merchandise. With the optimized size of those huge spherical shelves acting as the planets, it becomes possible to stock all the boxes inside sorted out by brand.
This new disposition gives customers access to more products and decreases the psychological wall created by the separation. By doing that the customers will naturally look around and it will give more visibility to the brands.