Being the first International outpost, the design of the store aims to retain the essence of Machine-a London and reinterpret into a local context: unique, cutting edge and at the same time welcoming. The store is recently being selected and featured by ‘international style bible’ WWD as one of ‘Best Fashion Boutiques in China’ The design of Machine-A Shanghai seeks to find the sweet spot between the past and the future. It minimises intervention to the existing old factory space, rough features such as aged concrete walls and raw ceilings are preserved and integrated with refined and futuristic elements such as coloured lights and digital screens. It also minimises the extra consumption of material and labours. 

There is no partition through out the space: free and open. Functionally the open-plan space increases accessibility of the entire store, offering a smooth circulation for customer with special needs. In addition, the fitting room and toilet is also being designed with disabled features. Instead, curved structure hanging from the ceiling are installed to gently guide the flow of direction, creating senses of hidden and revealing, encouraging the customers to explore and interact with the space, while softening the overall brutalist environment. 

Offering an immersive yet private retail experience embraced by the curved structures. Concrete, stainless steel and two shades of terrazzos were selected as the main material palettes. The combination of black and dark grey terrazzo floor, imitates the light and shadow created by the curved structures.All design elements from ceiling lights, vertical hanging curved structure to the two toned terrazzo floor are being utilised to create a complete and cohered space. Standing in natural co-existence with the store, the Raf Simons shop-in-shop (by Glenn Sestig Architects) constructed by weather-worn raw concrete panels occupies one side of the space, spanning over 13 metres. 

Window&event area is designed to extend the functionality of traditional window display to a new interactive format, with an extendable size from 6 msq to 18msq, offering a dedicated space for incubation of creative interactions (brand installations and various creative events) and facilitate location fashion communities. To create ‘an eye-catching blank canvas’. The brutalist aesthetic and dramatic curved structure might take the customer by surprise in the first sight, but as they explore the space, the fluidity of the circulation leads to the fade out of architecture itself, leaving a blank canvas to accommodate and showcase the garment.