Oppo Aesthetics Translated into the Architecture of its Stores
UNStudio has completed a new flagship store in Guangzhou, and in Beijing for OPPO – one of China’s leading global mobile phone brands.
In line with OPPO’s forward-thinking move to upgrade their brand, UNStudio’s offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong introduced a new customer experience that starts from the shops’ exterior facades into the retail interiors. The design for the Guangzhou OPPO flagship store in Shanghai is approached through a keen focus on craftsmanship, alongside material choices that add a contemporary twist to the vernacular architecture of the city.
Explaining the process, UNStudio Principal Architect, Ben van Berkel says, “What we find particularly interesting about these special smaller-scale projects is that you can first really investigate the client’s products, their design aesthetics and technology, and discover ways to reinterpret these qualities into the craft of architecture. This is what we did at UNStudio Asia for OPPO. We re-crafted their information technology aesthetics into the facade, the furniture, and the finishes.”
Since completion, the flagship store in Guangzhou has been shortlisted for the Designers Institute of New Zealand’s ‘Best Design Awards’ and A’ Design’s ‘Best of Year Award’.
With its 300 square meters new facade, the 606 sq meter OPPO Guangzhou Super Flagship Store is located at Zhengjia Plaza in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou.
For OPPO, it was essential that the design for the store reflects the philosophy of the brand, while aligning to the company’s existing design ethos. The total brand experience had to be created for the customers that were highly tailored to OPPO, according to UNStudio.
Situated along the main thoroughfare, the facade design needed to provide the store with a bold and recognizable visual identity. As a result, a sliced extruded tube component was chosen as the main module, inspired by bamboo – an important source of food, clothing, housing, and transportation for people in Guangzhou in ancient times.
This metallic tube is also a 3D interpretation of the ‘O’ in OPPO. This dimensional transformation results in a cylindrical tube, into which a cut is added in order to obtain a truncated cylinder. This cylindrical form is repeated in varying lengths and curvatures throughout the facade, creating a reference to both the brand and to technology.
For the overall composition of the facade elements, multiple geometric strategies were studied. Following the exploration of different volumetric options, a large, sweeping folding gesture was chosen which echoes the corner curve of the OPPO brand logo, while guiding visitors towards the entrance to the store.
“The aim was to create a design that would become an integral and recognisable part of OPPO’s overall branding and a valued experience that OPPO’s customers will want to engage with and return to. For OPPO customers, existing and new, the newly designed Guangzhou store provides a venue where they can familiarise themselves with – and get excited about – OPPO’s products,” says Ben van Berkel,
With the ambition to create a gathering space that blurs the boundaries between public space and commerce for OPPO’s customers, UNStudio introduced an ‘Urban Park’ concept. This concept creates an inclusive environment that meets the behavioural needs of the various people who visit the store.
The interior is designed as a ‘borderless’ interactive environment, where meandering routes lead visitors through an array of ‘display zones’, thereby creating different rhythms of motion and allowing customers to browse, take their time, pause and try out the products within the store.
Achieving a fluid space in a flowing, uninterrupted movement – where an intuitive sequence of different areas enables customers to experience and interact with the products – was one of the key aims of the interior design.
The store also provides customers with a playful ‘instagrammable’ experience zone, where they are also encouraged to discover the features of the phone’s cameras by taking photos and selfies.
OPPO Beijing
The same design DNA was carried forward to the prominent new Wangfujing Avenue OPPO store in Beijing. The Beijing store has a total area of 428m2, spread over two floors. This division is made visible to passersby by means of a fully glazed, double-height facade. In alignment with the Guangzhou Super Flagship, the ambition of the design for the Beijing store was to express ‘Beauty through Technology’. In Beijing, the ‘Urban Park’ remains the driving concept, while a sculptured staircase provides a distinctive feature within the store. This staircase links the two floors of the store in a continuous flow that becomes part of the customer journey.
To counteract the relatively narrow dimensions of the store, and to increase visibility, anodised aluminum panels, glass, and mirror panels are used to create reflection and the illusion of depth in the space. To maintain brand consistency, terrazzo flooring and the backlit ceiling are carried through from the design of the flagship store in Guangzhou.
On the ground floor, a long, self-supporting, monolithic table serves as a display for the various smart devices, while accessories are displayed along with glass and aluminium shelving that lines the wall.
The staircase serves as a social and experience zone, while the device displays continue on the second level, leading to the repair zone.
PROJECT CREDITS:
OPPO Guangzhou:
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Hannes Pfau, Garett Hwang With Alexander Meyers, Ana Castaingts Gomez, Piao Liu, Jing Xu, Idil Kantarci, Diego Ramirez Leon, Praneet Verma
Advisors:
Local Design Institute: DOP Design
Installation & Exhibition: Leaping Creative
Lighting: brandston partnership inc.(BPI)
OPPO Beijing:
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Hannes Pfau, Garett Hwang With Alexander Meyers, Ana Castaingts Gomez, Piao Liu, Jonghoon Kim, Idil Kantarci, Diego Ramirez Leon, Pragya Vashisht
Advisors:
Local Design Institute: DOP Design
Installation & Exhibition: Leaping Creative
Lighting: brandston partnership inc.(BPI)
