WAT's first store is located on Julu Road, Shanghai and kicks off plans for store expansion in other cities in China. WAT's store in Changsha will combine retail and bar functions to explore the prototype of a supermarket bar.
The WAT Changsha store site is located on Jiefang West Road in Tianxin District, the most lively and bustling commercial area in Changsha. There are dense restaurants and snacks, bars and nightclubs and shopping malls. WAT Changsha store will be a super game park, where alcohol and games are played to the extreme.
Elevation is media!
Faced with a 6-lane traffic artery, pedestrians needed a sense of extreme speed in their first vision. The small square bottle, a classic WAT product, can become a super material, or even a super symbol of WAT, if it is turned into a transparent, bright wall.
The wall is 10 meters high and 6 meters wide. 6,000 small square bottles were recycled, and after removing the packaging they look like crystal clear glass blocks. After structural calculations and taking into account the material properties of the bottles, 5mm thick tempered glass was used as a support element. 6000 bottles were evenly arranged in 16 steel modules, each with custom wall wash lights hidden above and below, laminated with tempered glass to ensure safety.
According to the request of WAT team, the design team implanted a super game land in this 200 square meters of space along the street. The first is the main entrance "Newbie Field", which consists of three curved LED screens with "slot machines" embedded between the entrance on the ground floor and the folding window on the second floor. By pulling a lever located outside, the "slot machine" screen begins to rotate randomly, similar to the opening sequence in a video game, and the player is given an identity and admission ticket.
Continuing the retail function, the retail area on the first floor is centered on a 7-meter-long rotating bar, with two rows of functional cabinets exquisitely arranged in a space with a net width of 5 meters. The self-service cabinets are arranged side by side in a linear flow with a shopping guide, a four-door refrigerator and a gift display cabinet, and a half-circle acrylic signage menu to guide customers to easily shop for gaming equipment (drinks). The back bar meets the custom blending of pre-mixed drinks, and the equipment slot above the operation counter is reserved for the wine picker that WAT is secretly developing to reserve the memory for the game version upgrade i.e. more drinks. The folding door at the entrance can be opened all the way, and the customized robot IP for Changsha interacts with the device on the street, which is the advantage of a convenience store belonging to the street.
Marquee divide the retail and seating areas. The matte stainless steel covering the top of the walls creates an interdimensional sense of volume. Seating combined with reconfigured tables and chairs to satisfy different numbers of customer groups. How to PK, WAT's bragging series, and small square bottles of energy blocks became the new symbols of wine fighting. At the same time, the WAT maze installation became an impossible task for all micro-brewers.
The stairwell leading to the second floor is the "portal" to the advanced game level. The matrix of black stairwells is lined with square-shaped points of light of the same size. Customers travel from the metal punk of the ground floor to the dark rock of the second floor, from open to private. In a space of less than 100 square meters, the design team tried their best to arrange different game copies, such as the box seats enclosed by glass sliding doors, the casual seats against the wall, the U-shaped bar seats enclosing the atrium, the couple seats with RGB lighting, and the booths along the window. And through the atrium, customers can look down on the rotating bar with a constant flow of drinks and people.
What were the key challenges?
In an extremely dense, collage urban interface, the design team wanted a straightforward, declarative media façade.
What were the solutions?
The small square bottle is WAT's classic product, inspired by perfume packaging, and is now a pivotal brand memory. 6,000 small square bottles were recycled, and the bottles, without their packaging, are like crystal clear glass blocks. These small square bottles are structurally calculated and evenly arranged in 16 steel modules, which eventually become a bright façade.
