Press Release
2023 EuroShop RetailDesign Awards China Winners Announced
2023-12-01
The EuroShop RetailDesign Awards (ERDA), jointly established by the EHI Retail Institute and Messe Düsseldorf Group, is one of the key concurrent events of the EuroShop Trade Fairs series. The EuroShop RetailDesign Awards China (ERDA China) is a special award for retail store designs in China, aiming to encourage Chinese store designers to actively explore retail trends, create unique styles and concepts, and continually enhance user experiences while building retail brand stores.
As one of the most important activities of the 2023 Shanghai International Trade Fair for In-store Design & Solutions (China in-store), the awards ceremony of the 2023 EuroShop Retail Design Awards China was grandly held at the China in-store exhibition site on November 29. This year's ERDA China received nearly a hundred excellent entries, with 30 works shortlisted after an initial review by the competition jury. These entries were then evaluated by a panel of expert judges and a brand jury on four dimensions: brand concept communication, consumer experience satisfaction, design innovation, and environmental concepts implementation, resulting in three top design works being selected as the winners. They are: To Summer Beijing Guozijian Flagship Store designed by F.O.G. Architecture ; Holiland Travel Flagship Store designed by SLT Design and Jinan NIO House designed by Lukstudio.
Over a hundred visitor representatives from in-store design companies and retail brands attended the awards ceremony, jointly crowning these three outstanding Chinese retail design masterpieces.
Let us take a moment to review this year's three winning retail store designs.
To Summer Beijing Flagship Store
Designer: F.O.G. Architecture
Brand: To Summer
To Summer’s new flagship store in Beijing is located at 23 Guozijian St. At the sight of this 280-year-old architecture, we began by asking ourselves to find a balance between conservation and development.
This Siheyuan is rare in that it has never had a spirit screen, and the gate is relatively wide open. To build on this unique feature, we made the storefront glass windows so that passersby can observe the courtyards inside.
The rooftop was originally made up of layers of grey brick tiles. From afar, they looked like waves rushing in and out on the shore. To keep it uniform, we used tiles of the same making and layered them by the same density. We also replaced the broken parts of the “yuanyang tiles.”
Meanwhile, the pavilion on the second floor was remodelled into a lounge bridge on which people can view the roof. The roof and the bridge are connected by the glass. When sunlight shines on the roof edge and through the glass, a wavy shadow is left on the ground, marking a more subtle expression of the water element in this oriental courtyard.
HOLILAND TRAVEL Flagship Store
Designer: SLT Design
Brand: Holiland
The exploration of infinite time and space is perhaps one of the most primitive collective aspirations of human civilization, which has become an ambitious future narrative after the explosion of science and technology. SLT Design has created the Holiland Travel Flagship Store in Shanghai, with the theme of travel beyond time and space. Different from traditional offline retail, it brings visitors immersive space scenes and gravity-free futuristic space experiences. Holiland’s baking creativity and SLT’s future narrative space design collide with infinite inspiration – metal mirror, meteorite bar, suspension engine, alien invasion… Spread the new concept of baking, and invite travelers to touch the boundaries of time and space and talk to the future while bringing a sweet taste experience. The brand concept is embodied in space, considering user interaction, psychological construction, service design, and building an unconventional experience across the scene.
SLT has utilized new materials, programmable digital lighting, and figurative modelling devices to create the time-travel theme scenes, and proposed a challenging immersive gravity-free experience. The whole entrance and nearly one-third of the walls and ceiling are made by 3D printing, as well as resin pouring luminous meteorite modelling. This space conveys the brand’s innovative baking concept and enhance the influence of Holiland in bakery retails. Brand image can be better presented through offline space to bring users a deeper recognition. Meanwhile, immersive online space scenes explore more possibilities for offline combinations of new meta-universe hot spots.
House of Progress - Jinan NIO House
Designer: Lukstudio
Brand: NIO
With its recent European launch, NIO is steadily entering the international electric vehicle market as a new player. Back in China, the brand has been a market leader and the public is familiar with the sleek NIO House and community concept. The development of user experience therefore seeks to connect more to the local culture, giving rise to site-specfic design.
The two-part architecture helps divide the car showroom and the users’ area. Facing the main street, the floor-to-ceiling curtain wall showcases an unobstructed view of the high-tech showroom to passers-by. The aluminum eave protruded out in layers, a modern interpretation of the traditional Dougong system. Tucked behind the futuristic showroom, the users’ zone greets every exclusive guest at the entrance with a calming courtyard view. Restored with old bricks and paved with clay tiles in traditional ripple pattern, the small pocket of nature is finished with a simple stone slab fountain, a subtle tribute to Jinan as the “City of Springs”.
About ERDA China
ERDA China (EuroShop RetailDesign Award China) is derived from ERDA which is one of the supporting programs of EuroShop Trade Fairs. ERDA is organized by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and EHI since 2008 to award the most compelling store concepts from all candidates. A well-honed mix of store architecture, colours, materials, lighting and visual merchandising, the clear communication of the product range as well as direct means of appealing to customers are key criteria for the jury of experts.
As the Chinese retail industry has formed its own pattern with Chinese characteristics during its development, one set of criteria is no longer the optimal assessment for retail designs in both China and other countries, we establish ERDA China for the unique needs of the Chinese retail industry, and invite more domestic experts to join the jury and crown the outstanding store designs in China.
