Landscape Architecture: Landscape Architecture: - School of ...

Render of the third-floor design. The white, triangular shoe display units are
freestanding and can be regrouped for a variety of formations.
homogeneity into the fifth floor, creating a ‘Lotte
experience’ beyond the women’s luxury labels.
Jonathan Clarke, director of Universal, infused the concept
with his preference for ‘a space that was much more about
curation’, whereby an overarching intelligence actively places
potentially diverse objects together to create a unique,
layered environment. This approach was blended with Lotte’s
own desire for a design that combined ‘elegance’ and
‘garden’, which it called ‘Eliden’, a rather clunky composite
of the two words.
Part of Universal’s success is based on its creation of
textured space through the use of pattern in a variety of
materials and scales. This has been used to great effect in
smaller retail spaces, but the breadth of the Lotte project
allowed the idea to be taken further. The individual
concession boxes were cleared out and replaced by three
distinct areas, which nonetheless remain visually connected
within a 50-metre (164-foot) long gallery. The same, irregular
crisscross pattern emerges in a series of screens in different
materials that delineate the three areas: fret-cut, blacklacquered
timber; screenprinted glass; and fabric. Combining
transparency and separation through the use of screens
obviously draws upon oriental design and also satisfies a local
cultural leaning towards physical privacy.
Adding to the overall cohesiveness is a timber floor and,
running the entire length of the gallery, a wall of threedimensional
ceramic tiles, similar to those used in the
McCartney design, but here drawing upon the traditional
Korean interest in textiles and pattern-making. Display
systems include perforated sheets of vertical glass (with the
clothes hangers inserted into the holes), suspended rails and
clear glass units.
The third-floor accessories department has also been
redesigned by Universal. Again, the rabbit warren of
concessions has been cleared out to create a dynamic, central
space. Clarke used the privacy of screens once more, as
‘accessories are highly personal’, while also lending the space
a feeling of transparency. The screens and the displays
become one within floor-to-ceiling glass cases, inserted with
underlit metal shelves. However, the most striking aspect of
the display system is a series of low-level, triangular Corian
units that can be placed together in different formations. The
Corian surfaces are tilted to display shoes at an angle, and
Clarke says this is a response to the fact that shoes are rarely
displayed in the way that we usually see them. The triangular
units pick up on the hard geometry of the design: regimented
triangles also form the pattern of the flooring, the black
Plexiglass ceiling and the screens. The masculinity is softened,
though, by the shadow pattern of dappled leaves (inspired by
the stained impression of leaves on pavements) visible
through the top layer of Corian. Initially, further moderation
was to be provided by columns clad in living moss, but this
idea proved unworkable, giving way to a green marble.
On both floors, Universal has managed to create a balance
between the identity of the store and the brands, using
pattern and texture to offer a sense of event while also
bringing a refreshing intelligence to product display. 4
Howard Watson is an author, journalist and editor based in London. He is coauthor,
with Eleanor Curtis, of the new 2nd edition of Fashion Retail, Wiley-
Academy, March 2007, isbn 0470066474, £34.99. See www.wiley.com. Previous
books include Bar Style (2005), The Design Mix: Bars, Cocktails and Style
(2006) and Hotel Revolution: 21st-Century Hotel Design (2005), also
published by Wiley-Academy.
Text © 2007 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images © Universal Design Studio
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