The Cadillac brand is globally synonymous with luxury, class, and sleek design, with its namesake said to have been featured in over 3,000 songs in the more than hundred-year history since the Cadillac was first introduced to the auto market in 1902. When seeking a designer for its new flagship headquarters in Shanghai, Cadillac China enlisted globally renowned architecture firm Gensler to render the vision of the brand through architectural form.
The result, Cadillac House Shanghai, is a sleek, futuristic building anchored in a site that embodies both the core design aesthetic and ethos of the brand. Gensler had already completed Cadillac House Soho in New York, and used the brief of that project to inform the Shanghai project. A synergistic team worked across several of Gensler’s U.S based offices in collaboration with the Shanghai office. The Soho project featured a symbiotic ‘world within Cadillac’ and ‘Cadillac within the world’ thematic, showcasing an interior view the company’s past, present, and future and an exterior view grounded in its global image. This inward/outward conceptual framework as well as the temporal framework were retained for the Shanghai project, but translated into Chinese culture using a Feng Shui style approach which payed particular attention to the interaction between the building and the site. In particular, Cadillac House Shanghai responds to the aspirational pull of the brand through features of the building itself as well as through the curated flow of each visitor’s movement through the physical space.
The House features a façade of 7,000 stainless steel plates as is surrounded by a shallow reflecting pool, offering a futuristic silhouette evocative of a deconstructed vehicular form. Ribbons of LED lights installed under the plates create a glittering, almost dreamlike structure. The design concept is intended to play on Cadillac’s history but also to position Cadillac House Shanghai as a new, emergent child of the brand, “a product of the ‘me’ generation” as Gensler articulates it, embracing new-technology trends and the evolution of aesthetic forms.
Irregularly shaped expansive windows and a dramatic geometric roof skylight allow abundant natural light and durable solar panels harness solar energy power for the interior. An interior lift is able to move showroom cars across levels. In a masterful interplay between performance theatre and ceremony, customers who have purchased new Cadillacs are led to a panoramic viewpoint on the top floor and watch as their vehicle is driven to a platform in the middle of the reflecting pool and ‘christened’ with an illuminated fountain water show.
Gensler considers itself a ‘one-firm-firm’, managing all aspects of a project in-house, including design concept, architecture, interior and digital design, and retail design. Brand values in this case were embodied through a thematic ‘journey’ that visitors are taken on across the three-level space. At ground level, hospitality is invoked through an open plan foyer and car showroom (Cadillac Arena) which includes interactive multi-media elements highlighting the brand’s history and latest projects, in addition to a 360-degree theatre showing short films. A coffee bar/lounge and a branded store appeal to tactile and sensory responses. A sculptural spiral staircase of concrete and timber ascends to the upper two floors, which are grounded in the values of education and exclusivity respectively. The education theme is realized through an immersive experience of ‘co-creation’ spaces, bringing visitors into collaboration with the brand and its vision. Playing on the idea of the city as a ‘concrete jungle’, an area named the ‘digital forest’ features storytelling totems, a sonic themed music library and VR and other interactive stations.
The third floor features a double height art gallery featuring rotating exhibitions, a reception area for VIP partnering and networking events, and exclusive lounge and boardroom areas. As visitors ascend, they deepen engagement with the brand through personalized experiences. The structure also plays on Cadillac’s history by defining the ground level as present, the middle level as future, and the top level as past.
The overall effect allows visitors to learn about the history, craftsmanship, cultural influence, technology and manufacturing process of a global leader in auto luxury, engaging them with the brand values and creating a broad aspirational appeal for a wealthy emergent creative class craving American style decadence.
