x+living crafts immersive journey for POP MART's shanghai store

pop mart global flagship store by x+living

In the heart of Shanghai, emerges X+Living’s newest immersive retail experience — a new global flagship store for leading Chinese pop culture and entertainment company, POP MART. From concept to spatial layout and intricate design details, the result is a vibrant celebration of the popular brand’s cultural impact, integrated with cutting-edge 3D printing technology and dynamic multimedia display systems to introduce an innovative pop toy culture landmark.

Integrating POP MART’s personality throughout the design process, X+Living primarily draws on the brand’s signature character Space Molly, giving her the identity of a traveler who traverses through time and space to uncover a new secret planet. In a lively infusion of light, color, and materiality, X+Living creates an otherworldly illusion of this new discovery with a trendy, futuristic display that invites visitor into a unique spatial retail experience. ‘The creation of a secret planet maps out future digital poetry, [and] interprets the evolution of space in the information age,’ comments the team.

POP MART global flagship store in Shanghai | all images courtesy X+Living

shanghai’s new pop toy culture landmark

Taking advantage of the store’s strategic position along Shanghai’s bustling Nanjing East Road, the architects at X+Living devised a prominent storefront with an expansive media screen to boldly radiate POP MART’s branding and invite passersby inside. With a sleek pearly white frontage, the futuristic facade serves as a transcendental boundary, dividing the external real world from the internal fantasy world.

Stepping inside the flagship store, a variety of natural sequences and spaces unfold together to immerse visitors in a fantastical journey through a mysterious planet from the future. Winding throughout the space, futuristic mechanical rods develop across the surfaces, like a growing plant, and create dramatic lines of vision across the spatial narrative.

large metal spheres embedded with electronic screens display information about the products

X+Living’s spatial concept which echoes the brand tone is marked by a distinct, ambient field of colors and modern materials which together to create a vibrant, trendy experience. Predominantly, a dream-like silver color scheme evades the store and constitutes the skin texture of space, with twists and turns of sculptural mechanical elements swirling through an expansive field of gray surfaces creating an illusion of a melding, mysterious world.

Bold accents of color enliven this monochrome plane, particularly across the vibrant panels that house the objects across the display cabinets and the specially-shaped display racks. ‘The thorough thoughtfulness, from the color scheme to the customization of shapes, successfully achieves a delicate, transparent glass-like texture, echoing the brand’s trendiness, and opening up the space between display partitions,’ comment the architects.

a dynamic futuristic interior marked by bold shapes and vibrant lighting

a futuristic retail experience infused with dynamic multimedia

A mechanical visual language composed of intricately crafted components and materials, partly achieved by 3D printing technology, defines the image of X+Living’s new planet for POP MART. Components as small as 1 cm and as large as 3 m are assembled together under precise calculations and scattered around the store in bold expressions. These elements range from arched metal displays spanning from the walls to the ceiling in orderly rows, to spherical boxes hanging from the ceiling on chains, creating a sense of wonder and novelty.

Meanwhile, on the ground, arc-shaped shelves are filled with toys and other merchandise, linking customers’ paths of exploration throughout the store. Also connecting the distinguished first floor to the second floor, is a multifunctional staircase that doubles as an aesthetic exhibition showcase for the products.

Further, incorporating the most current elements of digital media, the architect embed large metal spheres with electronic screens displaying information about POP MART’s toys. Also functioning as the ‘control heart’ of the space, is a central sculptural display object directs the conveyor belt on the ceiling to deliver products in an orderly manner.

the concept encapsulates the brand identity of leading pop culture store POP MART