The Galleria Luxury Hall West department store by Burdifilek
The 120,000-square-foot renovation of Seoul, South Korea’s Galleria Luxury Hall West comprised three women’s floors, one men’s floor and a homewares floor. A complete departure from typical South Korean shopping mall retail – made up almost entirely of shop-in-shops, with very little brand identity to the store itself – its new design provides a blank canvas, highlighting products with a trademark viewpoint that is Galleria-specific.
“We wanted a very elegant, neutral palette that evoked a lot of texture, but again created a really unique background for all of the brands,†explains Diego Burdi, creative director, Burdifilek. “We didn’t want to be so distinct with our visual opinions, so a brand could still feel comfortable living in it.â€
To create points of memory, and to lessen the visual vastness, the space is punctuated with exclusive design elements, including sculptural walls and a bean-shaped fitting room on a women’s floor, a sculptural room on the men’s department floor, and specialty, decorative lighting details in homewares – all referencing the store’s imaginative locale.
“There’s so much happening [with design in the South Pacific Rim] right now, and there’s a lot of play with paper, wood and stone,†says Burdi. “We needed something that spoke of an Asian-inspired environment, and we thought we should probably go down this road.â€
Connecting with the project designers’ intentions, VMSD judge, Michelle Isroff, vp, design, Big Red Rooster (Columbus, Ohio), said of the environment, “They took a neutral box and really played up the textures, and the sculptural aspects of what they did feel cohesive … It would be intuitive to shop.â€
Galleria Luxury Hall West, South Korean shopping mall, Burdifilek, Asian-inspired environment, Michelle Isroff, intuitive shop