Element Rockbund store
Living Room
The urban living room is the lifestyle that Element's new store hopes to convey, representing an innovation and transformation in the traditional relationship between stores, products, and customers.
The primary challenge we faced was how to create a living room within a space of less than 100 square meters, while making Element's lifestyle products the focal point. We extracted the seemingly insignificant yet essential storage units typically found in a living room as the main exhibition tools. These were then abstracted and categorized into four distinct elements: “cabinet,” “shelf,” “table,” and “console.”
Modular Design
The space is located in the historic building cluster of the Bund Source, near the Suzhou Creek area of the Bund. The new building, designed and extended by architect David Chipperfield, extracts modular and proportional relationships from the historic architecture, creating a harmonious yet varied architectural facade. The exhibition elements in our design aim to pay tribute to the classic image of the Bund Source architecture with a restrained expression. The four elements—“cabinet,” “shelf,” “table,” and “console”—are proportionally segmented at heights of 600mm and 1800mm, resulting in an overall composition that reflects the aesthetic proportions of the historic architecture's “three-part” division. The use of raw wooden frames and embedded medium-density fiberboard highlights the lines and structure of the cabinets while also compensating for the lack of storage space in the area. Given the need for numerous cabinets for the exhibition, the overall form still retains an elegant and dignified aesthetic under strict control of its proportions.
Enclosure
Although the space is a square with near-equal length and width, it features several door and window openings. We redefined the spatial enclosures and circulation by arranging the cabinets into four L-shaped groups. The tall cabinets for hanging long clothes are positioned closer to the solid walls, while the “table” and “console” elements are placed near the windows. This arrangement creates a sense of both inward and outward movement within the space, with levels of layering. The central L-shaped cabinet arrangement partially encloses the Living Room display area, allowing visitors to unintentionally pass through this core space, which serves as a subtle yet straightforward expression of the “Living Room” concept.
Constructed Details
Although the exhibition cabinetry adopts a relatively classic form, the junctions between materials are clearly articulated. The connections at the framework joints do not use traditional methods such as wood dowels or mortise and tenon joints but instead utilize two cross-arranged plum blossom sunk head screws at the T-shaped joints of the wooden frame. This ensures the stability of the frame while maintaining its purity and simplicity. The corner connectors, door handles, and steel cables—all metal components—remain consistent in material and follow the same clean lines as the cabinets.
Element Bund Source Store
Element's Bund Source store continues the philosophy of AO Architecture with its pure and constructive form relationships. It redefines traditional views on typified and functional spaces, allowing form to influence behavior within the space. The combination of old and new materials creates an atmosphere that feels both familiar and unfamiliar, presented in a way that aligns with a constructive logic. Thus, strolling through Element's Bund Source store, visitors experience a space that is both dignified and classic, yet free and relaxed.
Information
Location: Shanghai, China
Project Type: Commercial / Retail
Area: 80 m²
Interior（Architectural） Design: Ao-ArchLab
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