Retail: Other

Best of Year 2009 Winner: Slade Architecture

Best of Year -- Interior Design, 12/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Previous | Next

Best of Year > 2009 > Project Design > Retail: OTHER

Best of Year Winner, Retail: OTHER: Slade Architecture: Barbie Shanghai, Shanghai, China
See more on this project >

As the parents of four children, Hayes and James Slade know toys. Perhaps that was a factor in the architect couple winning the commission for Shanghai's House of Barbie, which opened as part of the doll's 50th-birthday celebration. The six-story, 35,000-square-foot former office building is now what the Slades call an "unapologetically feminine interpretation of Barbie, past, present, and future." Shimmering pink, purple, and white at night, the facade—fritted glass over floral-pattern polycarbonate—hints at the fantasia inside. Pink gelled fluorescents light an escalator tunnel that leads to the upper floors, where glitter, beading, gold and mirrored glass mosaic tile, and plush carpet abound. The enclosure for a giant spiral staircase is built from clear acrylic boxes containing Barbies in various outfits, and the young customers get their fashion moment, too: They can stage their own runway shows, dressed in Barbie apparel.

EMILY ANDERSEN; TIA BAUMAN; TIAN GAO; KEITH GREENWALD; JEREMY KIM; ELIZA KOSHLAND; CHIA-PING LIN; JULIA MALLOY; JEFF WANDERSMAN; STEPHANIE WONG; RAJIV HERNANDEZ; HALLEY WUERTZ; PALMER THOMPSON-MOSS; ALLISON WEINSTEIN: PROJECT TEAM.

Best of Year Merit Awards, Retail: OTHER

BURDIFILEK: Murale, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
See more on this project >

LED-lit glass fins set off the skin-care zone in the rear of an expansive aisle-free layout, a concept that this cosmetics and pharmacy chain plans to roll out across Canada.

Isay Weinfeld: Livraria Da Vila (Cidade Jardim), São Paulo, Brazil

Pivoting shelves act as entry doors for this bookshop, where a staircase with a ribbonlike balustrade sweeps upward to four lecture and receptions rooms.

Rockwell Group: Mauboussin, New York, NY
See more on this project >

In addition to fine jewelry, a 19th-century town house offers high drama inside and outwith mirror-shard paneling near the entry and, at nighttime, a light show of jewels rear-projected onto window shades.