Retail Space of Zhima Health at the Universal Beijing Resort

Along with the grand opening of the Universal Beijing Resort, a new retail store “Beijing Youli” under the support of Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission also made its debut as the first suggested stop for the park visitors after they get off from the subway station. As a shop-in-shop, a disruptive new retail experience area for Zhima Health was designed by Wang Yong for an independent space of 30 square meters in the store.

1. Design Challenges of Re-upgrade——Two Tasks for the Designer
With the experience of two existing stores, Zhima Health has taken consumption experience to the next level-on top of functionality and social networking, the space is expected to also offer an ever more critical emotional value for consumers, which is what Wang Yong must address as the first challenge.

The second challenge comes from the space itself-a 6.5m×4m box area of less than 30 square meters. Given its relatively compact size compared to the other two stores, Wang Yong has to figure out how to minimize the “small” feeling of the confined space through the addition of a “fourth” dimension based on a 3D design concept.

2. Design Concept——The Uniqueness of the Space
What Wang Yong had in mind was to target a certain customer group for Zhima Health with a brand new architectural style. As a result, Wang Yong decided to incorporate inspirations from Inception, multi-dimension, fashion and traditional brand genes into the design to deliver a space which is on the one hand fashionable and sci-fi and on the other light and friendly.

As Zhima Health features the display and selling of light drinks in the quasi-concept store, Wang Yong, considering its finite space with a raised ceiling, worked out a light and 3D product arrangement plan and circulation design, resulting in a new retail space with a devotion to a sense of infiniteness and preservation of functionality.

3. Space Presentation——A 30㎡Metaverse
Taking advantage of the high ceiling, Wang Yong deployed numerous towering wood arches, which were designed to intersect on the ceiling and then extend all the way down to the bottom of the rammed earth walls where product shelves were mounted.

Four pairs of life-size wood spiral stairs echo each other overhead, threading through arches from a height and dominating the shop-in-shop. The entire space, thanks to the arches and stair structures, resembles an unfolded accordion which is waking up the folded time and space.

On both horizontal and vertical dimensions, the use of mirrors enhances visual spaciousness. A whole glass on the ceiling and one side of the wall, together with the stretching structures that present a distortion in time and space, seems to have eliminated the boundary of the space and distorted time in a dazzling way. With light projecting from underneath the ground and structured light belts on the arches, a metaverse of new retail space is throwing its arms wide open to all customers.

Design: Beijing Wuxiang Space Architecture Design Studio
Photography: Zheng Yan