Indoor bushes, pure gentle and a sculptural 12-metre-high waterfall assist to create a chilled buying expertise contained in the Hyundai Seoul division retailer in Seoul, with interiors designed by Canadian studio Burdifilek.
Hyundai Seoul, which opened final yr, is the biggest buying centre within the South Korean capital and spans 89,100 sq. metres – the equal of round 13 soccer fields.
Toronto-based Burdifilek was answerable for designing three of the 12 flooring together with a central atrium topped with a lightwell. This extends via the core of the constructing to funnel solar into the expansive floorplan.
All the retail areas are organised across the atrium, which doubles up as a inexperienced belt to supply tranquil views of greenery and water from each vantage level.
Burdifilek achieved its “zen-like atmosphere” via the addition of stilted platforms housing bushes and waterfalls that cascade into shallow swimming pools from a peak of as much as 12 metres.
“Hyundai’s imaginative and prescient was to allocate 50 per cent of this flooring plate to create public areas the place individuals can socialise in a way more experiential setting than the everyday mall expertise has to supply,” mentioned Diego Burdi, co-founder and inventive director of Burdifilek.
“Ultimately, our resolution was impressed by Seoul’s surrounding nature. We selected to carry the surface in and create one thing sudden that performs with scale.”
The studio designed every flooring to have a definite visible language.
The second flooring, housing high-end womenswear, is a impartial gallery-like house with a subdued tonal palette.
As a substitute of flashy colors, Burdifilek created curiosity via the usage of flowing types, contrasting textures and layers of reflective and translucent supplies.
Mirrored panels put in alongside the interior edges of the ceiling are rippled like water and create the impact of glancing up at a reflecting pond.
Customized hanging fixtures have been put in to create a sense of lightness whereas oblique lighting emphasises the sinuous strains of the constructing.
The third flooring options related sculptural components to these used on the second flooring. However right here, types are bolder, colors are darker and pure supplies are juxtaposed with extra industrial ones.
Cobalt-blue ribbons are used to droop clothes racks from an unfinished ceiling, whereas custom-built mirrored show circumstances enable the featured manufacturers to take centre stage.
“Our philosophy was to create environments on every flooring that might converse to a particular demographic, with a special design language whereas evoking nature within the areas in numerous methods,” Burdi mentioned.
“We additionally strived to create some commonality via sculptural components that may resonate with the company and provides a bodily expertise of wandering and exploring.”
Burdifilek was co-founded by Burdi and Paul Filek in 1993.
Earlier tasks by the Toronto-based agency embrace the flagship for Canadian jacket model Moose Knuckles, the place dimly lit interiors evoke winter’s frigid darkness.
The pictures is by Yongjoon Choi.
