Shanghai

<Red> The birth of a brand. The manufacturing of products. The stories told by Joyce, a designer who has finally stepped out into the world after years of incubation, became the key to conceptualizing the overall context for her store space. I thought about her passion and how it was able to manifest as a brand producing a series of vibrant products, and that made me associate her with a womb, the origin of new life and birth. The womb here should be understood as a description rooted in maternal instincts and not simply as the meaning or value of biological birth. Inside the womb, where identity and ultimate physicality are bestowed, endless possibilities meet maternal instincts to create an absolute being. The unrealistically d... More

Topgolf is one of the world’s leading sports entertainment companies, famous for its fun and engaging venues combining active entertainment and good food. With an immense appetite for the new and exciting, Shanghai was the perfect location for the first international location. Brian Chua Socializing over food and drink is a huge part of living the Shanghai lifestyle. Topgolf sought to create a truly unique experience for Shanghai and entrusted the task to the well-known interior design studio, hcreates – the team behind many of Shanghai’s beloved hospitality venues. hcreates knew the success of this project relied on bringing together all the different elements into one cohesive space.  Brian Chua Hannah C... More

BIENENSTEIN CONCEPTS was asked to envision the new YVES SALOMON store at the prestigious luxury shopping mall Plaza 66 in Shanghai, China.  While developing this new store concept for the more sportive clothing line that is part of the Yves Salomon brand, a dynamic curved wall line slicing through vertical planes became the core architectural gesture. The void that develops behind the bend allows for additional space for a fitting room, concealed cash desk area or back-of-house functions, depending on the actual available layout.Modern simplicity was key for the interior architects with the aim to create an open, airy backdrop for the diverse clothing collection. Rough, textured surfaces were superposed with more sophisticated and soft... More

 hcreates recently opened a new café for Mini Cuppa in the Sky Soho development in Hongqiao, Shanghai.  The client wanted a fun and cozy space to attract the young professionals in the surrounding office towers. When hcreates first started to learn about Mini Cuppa, they immediately noticed their range of interesting, creative drinks and snacks that were very eye-catching. Design Director Hannah Churchill said the creative process was ignited by the products. “We kept going back to this one bubble-tea image.  It was kind of sculptural. We couldn’t help but let that influence the design aesthetic for the space” hcreates hcreates hcreates designed a custom floor for the project, the terrazzo... More

The new Headquarters in the heart of Jing An will support the agency’s growing team and features a wellness center and flexible showroom for live streaming and events.  SHANGHAI (April 2021) Gusto Luxe, Asia’s leading integrated luxury agency, has moved into new Shanghai Headquarters. The 2,500 sqm space was designed by hcreates, an award-winning interior design studio based in Shanghai.   “We are incredibly excited to turn our vision for an integrated creative space, into a reality,” says Nick Cakebread, Gusto Luxe Founding Partner. “The new Shanghai headquarters will allow us to expand our service offering for clients, as well as ensure that our people have a space that caters not only to... More

To design a new French market offering for Luneurs - Les Halles, hcreates interiors developed an eclectic approach in materiality, by planning and styling with a distinct separation of bakery, coffee, ice cream, and delicatessen. hcreates played with a larger industrial approach to scale, utilizing large light/ acoustic features and exposing services and fire hoses to emphasize a more raw sense of space, whilst retaining the warm, inviting aesthetic of the other well-loved Luneurs locations. More

Hooked is a casual fish and chip seafood restaurant and bar in the newly renovated Found 158 complex in Shanghai. The interior is relaxed and playful with fresh white furniture and white washed timber plank finishes. Tropical wallpaper and aqua blue add fun pops of colour throughout the space. The space is accented with some marine-themed elements- boat cleats and rope  - with a boathouse row feature wall. The bar references the inside of a boat shed with exposed framing and a weatherboard clad bar front. Hooked is fast becoming the go-to place in Shanghai for a light and fresh free-flow brunch or a relaxing evening cocktail. The playfulness of the space entices a young and crisp crowd More

Central Studios provides a unique space for their clients to create photo and video productions right in the heart of one of downtown Shanghai’s most vibrant and evolving neighbourhoods.To cater to various clients’ needs they offer bespoke support in their large versatile spaces for fashion, media and advertising clients. After years of successful operation, Central Studios engaged hcreates to help refresh key elements of the space prior to their ten-year anniversary. The site was once an old factory and had a lot of unique rustic elements in the underlying structure which brings wonderful character to space. The focus of the brief was to enhance these aspects in the space but also increase the useability and functionality of... More

Nestled between a hairdresser and a hot pot restaurant on an otherwise typical Shanghai street, a large mural artwork has emerged. Spanning the full face of a site long time occupied by a convenience store. You could almost pass by, mistaking it for a boarded-up street art façade. Locally designed and installed on site, it is unique, bold and unexpected, on closer inspection, a small doorbell hidden in plain sight within the yellow, white and black paint strokes, indicates that more lies beyond. The client, a young veteran of the bar industry, had been quietly refining the concept for The Broken Dagger, patiently waiting for the day to realize his vision. A long incubation period meant the branding direction and theme were strong fr... More

Shanghai N.E.O Plaza is a thirty minute drive south-west from Shanghai Pudong International Airport. It is located in a rapidly developing residential suburb which is a moderately famous tourist destination thanks to its preserved Song dynasty historic town. The 24,500 square-meter outdoor mall comprises shopping, entertainment and dining facilities with social gathering spaces at its core. To ensure footfall to all retail areas, three public squares connect diagonally from the main corner entrance to a large plaza in the south-west. The stepped massing of the first two floors references the more intimate scale of the nearby ancient town. To achieve maximum commercial exposure, a bold ring-like object sits on the roofs of the streetscape... More

CLOU’s design approach for this 110,000 sqm and six-storey shopping mall is to create three distinct atrium zones, which assist navigation and attracts customers to explore and play with the interior themes. Each of the three atriums has one 'energy theme' - light, earth and water. Lighting features further accentuate these energy themes and highlight the bold and eye-catching atmosphere. Light cubes, dodecahedron wireframes, and ball-shaped ‘rain clouds’ made from different materials showcase the beauty of pure geometry and act as both lighting feature and art installation. Each shape corresponds with one of the three atrium themes and invites customers to look up and enjoy from many locations. More

The lesson proposes a journey around the figure, thought and works of Franco Purini, one of the most relevant Italian and international architects. Through the architect's direct testimony, the narration goes through the different stages of training, research and construction of the Purini-Thermes studio, established in Rome by the architects Franco Purini and Laura Thermes. The lesson starts with the “Roman” life portrait of the architect, where the workers' extraction of his family and the city's neighborhoods are fundamental elements. We arrive then at the moment in which the architect becomes fully aware of the profession through a fascinated gaze on the project of the Tuscolano neighborhood, designed by Mario De Renzi and... More