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Background:
H3 is a new China brand which specializes in wood products by well-known timber flooring company, Isable. This design exercise will attempt to emphasize H3 as “The Wood Specialist” and set a store identity for the brand's countrywide expansion.
Site:
The site is located in one of the prominent building products retail park called O-Park in Kunming, Yunnan.
The 3 storey building has a gross floor area of 858 square meter.
Design Brief:
To create a new kind of shopping experience for the consumers in a highly competitive building materials market.
To create a strong and memorable store identity with maximum visual impact.
To enforce the brand's push to be the “expert” for timber building products (such as timber floor boards, build-in furniture, timber doors).
To portray the brand's effort in it's constant push for sustainable process and products.
To capitalize on Isabel's success in timber flooring.
Design Concept:
Exterior -
The
Recycled wood is being used as a primary material for the facades.
For visual articulation, the building consist of 2 layers, the “outer shell” and “inner skin”.
“Inner skin” consist of 2 different depth with timber boards laid vertically. “Outer shell” also has 2 different depth and is expressed as angled folded planes with timber boards laid horizontally. These are intended to create a stark contrast between the “Shell” and the “Skin” with the use of a single monotonous material.
The primary material used are recycled timber planks from the surrounding demolished housing in this fast-developing city.
Each facade serves a different primary function at the street-level. The north facade consists of showcase windows, The east side serves as the outdoor stage backdrop with a giant outdoor LED screen, the south east facade is the main entrance while the south facade has a giant back-lit poster board.
The design hopes to create a landmark for this sprawling building-materials cluster which consist of worn-down industrial-looking shops and showrooms, hopefully becoming a portal which draws customers into the building with the transparency of the first storey.
Interior -
The first storey consists of the timber flooring sample zone, door sample zone, wardrobe door sample zone, discussion area, and window showcases.
The second storey consists of 7 sample rooms and the washroom.
The third storey consists of 5 sample rooms and 2 offices.
Connecting these floors is a skeletal structured staircase with glass railing and a custom-made acrylic pendant lamp links the floors visually.