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WOW Concept

External Reference

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Fourth Floor (Home & Lifestyle) - ImagenSubliminal
Fourth Floor (Home & Lifestyle) - ImagenSubliminal
Ground Floor (Cosmetics & Beauty) - ImagenSubliminal
Fourth Floor (Home & Lifestyle) - ImagenSubliminal

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Multi-Brand Store
7.76
6.89
7.72
5.26
6.91
Frederik Bellermann
Frederik Bellermann Strategic Marketing Manager at Wilkhahn Wilkening+Hahne
Bold use of colors - creating world...
7.67
6.45
8.6
4.31
6.76
Sandra Adrian Asplund
Sandra Adrian Asplund Creative Director at Asplund Collection Stockholm
Do love the idea of different real...
7.45
3.88
6.31
3.74
5.35
Manel Escacena-Chica
Manel Escacena-Chica Design Communication and Advertising Manager at El Croquis | Nex
7.81
7.17
6.52
6.1
6.9
James Dilley
James Dilley Director | Head of Hospitality and Interior Design at Jestico + Whiles
7.17
7.6
7.17
5
6.74
Gem Barton
Gem Barton Senior Tutor at Royal College of Art
Really nice to see retail spaces fo...
8.54
6.8
8.7
5
7.26
Paulo Rocha
Paulo Rocha Partner at  KPMB Architects
It's a fun and playful experience....
7.81
7.81
8.52
5
7.29
Ricardo Seola
Ricardo Seola Creative Director and Photography Professor at Ricardo Seola and NABA Milano
7.95
7.88
8.17
6.1
7.53
Ava Watson
Ava Watson Multidisciplinary Designer at Ava Watson
7.02
7.17
6.88
5
6.52
Nathan Allen
Nathan Allen Head of Global Sustainability Programs & Partnerships at Google
7.09
6.22
6.3
4.67
6.07
Luisa Norbis
Luisa Norbis Interior Designer and Journalist at Luisa Norbis
Love the experience of the wow fact...
9
8
9
6
8
Virginia Lung
Virginia Lung Design Director at One Plus Partnership
7
6
6.5
5
6.13
Guillermo Blanco
Guillermo Blanco Design Director at Worldesignteam
Fantastic creativity making unique...
8.74
8.02
9.17
5
7.73
Wang Xiaodong
Wang Xiaodong Principal at Zhejiang University Architectural Design and Research Institute
7.35
7.43
8.25
7.73
7.69
Eric Jafari
Eric Jafari Chief Development Officer and Creative Director at edyn
8
6
8
5
6.75
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Multi-Brand Store of the Year
7.89
6.91
7.84
5.39
7.01
Ricardo Seola
Ricardo Seola Creative Director and Photography Professor at Ricardo Seola and NABA Milano
8.38
6.89
8.31
5.26
7.21
Pieter Kool
Pieter Kool Founder at Carbon Studio
7.76
6.89
7.72
5.67
7.01
Claudio Pironi
Claudio Pironi CEO at Claudio Pironi & Partners
The wow effect won't last long....
7.76
6.89
7.72
5.26
6.91
Virginia Lung
Virginia Lung Design Director at One Plus Partnership
7.76
6.89
7.72
5.26
6.91
Arne Schultchen
Arne Schultchen Founder and Creative Director at design for human nature
7.8
7
7.75
5.5
7.01
Client
WOW Concept
Floor area
3000 ㎡
Completion
2022
Budget
Confidential
Social Media
Instagram Linkedin
Audiovisual Context
Construction Management

WOW is an articulated project, with a digital marketplace that complements the online shopping experience through interactive systems. This project nourishes the physical space, whose first spectacular point of sale. Each floor is unique and dynamic making WOW a theatre of retail, an iridescent scenography that changes on every floor, that transforms to wow the customer. This innovative space blends reality with fiction, the physical becomes digital, and shopping becomes an immersive experience. Different shopping scenarios imply that there will also be a continuous replacement of products, brands, and digital natives which are not sold in other physical stores and will have their exclusive spaces in WOW. 

In the WOW tour, the user starts on the ground floor dedicated to cosmetics. On this floor, External Reference has imagined that classical sculptures across time and space colonize the building of the former Neo-Classic Hotel Roma. These pink painted statues have undergone spatiotemporal deformations which manifest themselves in glitches and are used as displays for product demonstrations. 

The lower floor houses the technology products in a space inspired by the evolution of human nature towards the artificial and digital. A landscape of marine corals 3D printed with PureTech material (a natural mineral compound that neutralizes greenhouse gases by capturing and converting CO2 into inert minerals) is the setting where digital and physical dimensions are integrated to generate an unprecedented shopping experience. 

The first to the third floor is dedicated to fashion represented by digital-native brands, established companies, and streetwear firms respectively. All of them are aesthetically and conceptually independent. The first floor will be changing its skin entirely as if it were a dress, completely renewing its aesthetics each season. Whereas, the second floor, with its imaginary inspired by a fashion show, will be changing scenarios for events. And the third floor, inspired by sports and street aesthetics, immerses the user in a more technical and urban space. 

The fourth floor of the mall is dedicated to home and host avatars under an aesthetic inspired by the Metaverse, theatricalizing a game situation where outer and inner space are mixed, and reality becomes a pixelated fantasy. 

The whole WOW project is inside a protected building, the former Hotel Roma, the first one built on Gran Vía dating back to 1915. The design of the interior space, therefore, generates a dialogue between an extremely contemporary layer and its historical context. All of WOW's internal structures and components have been designed as ephemeral elements, removable skins, and furnishings conceived as free-standing art installations. The result, in addition to respecting the historical heritage, manages to generate a dialogical, artistic, and sometimes ironic reading.