INSTALLATION NEAR THE XINTIANDI GATEWAY CALLED “A KALEIDOSCOPIC CATWALK.”

Teamiand compiled the article, and photos was done by Seth Powers, with permission from unstudio. The architectural company unstudio is bringing attention to the enormous importance that ‘display’ plays in retail design with their gateway installation. This installation is a responsive single architectural gesture that is now being shown as part of the “riba shanghai windows project 2014.” the riba shanghai windows project 2014 is being copied here. From March 28th to May 5th, 2014, in its second year in china, brings to life the throbbing fusion of architecture and fashion. This event gives experts from both sectors the opportunity to comprehend and fully utilize their synergies. unstudio’s ben van berkal has staged a 30 m x 3 m x 2.7 m long corridor archway that frames the entrance of the xintiandi style retail mall in shanghai. the installation was commissioned by china xintiandi to investigate the symbiotic relationship of cultural reflections that occur between the city’s occupants and the urban landscape. On a deeper note, the installation investigates the role of display in retail. The project makes use of a single architectural gesture that moves from wall to ceiling to wall. This transition not only tracks the movements of pedestrians along its trajectory, but also translates those movements into a reflection that rotates and inverts around the visitors as they walk through the installation. The reflections of the pedestrians shift via a progression of three ‘phases’ of context, which are as follows: retail, ground, and urban landscape. Large mirrors installed at either end of the project serve as focal points, recording the whole time lapse of the effect and integrating it into a single moving picture. The end result is a reworking of the interaction between the urban backdrop and the observer, which ties these elements together in a cultural setting that encompasses retail, the city, and the people who live there. According to Ben Van Berkel, “the installation is related to the culture of consumption, not only with respect to shopping, but to consuming images: images of our surroundings, of our city, of the buildings and the people around us, and of course, of ourselves.” This statement is based on the fact that “the installation is related to the culture of consumption.” “we wanted to ‘dress up’ the public space as it were and to catch the public in this environment, almost in a kaleidoscope catwalk,” he says as he draws to a conclusion. “we wanted to capture the public in this environment, almost in a kaleidoscopic catwalk.” Please visit globalhop.indiaartndesign.com in order to see the photographs.