WithMe Chicago

WithMe in Chicago is a 3,000 square foot mobile retail space designed by GIORGIO BORRUSO DESIGN with tech company, WithMe. Several iterations of the project will be traveling the country in the coming months, playing host to various retail brands at prominent locations. The mobile unit challenges traditional models of retail architecture by allowing innovative brands to inhabit a technologically advanced space for a brief period of time providing scalability, rapid deployment and testing of new ideas in any market, with ever evolving cutting-edge technologies, and the highest level of design and architectural aesthetics, giving us a glimpse of a future where hierarchies in the industry have been disrupted by new technologies, ideas, and ways of life.

The interior is comprised of various interactive elements that blend online and physical experiences. Shapeshifter is a kinetic wall that exhibits a new way of thinking about spatial boundaries, adaptable reactive merchandise display, and personalized digital communication. A virtual reality dome allows brands to extend the capabilities of their space further into the digital realm. Advanced fixtures like the ReacTable provide interactive product information by placing merchandise along the display surface, while telescopic fitting room enclosures blend ancient natural materials with the technological. Mirror displays and mirror-clad fitting room cabinets allow visitors to request and purchase products to try on in-store as well as browse online inventories for same day delivery. An Express Checkout Kiosk allows customers with the ShopWithMe app to swipe and pay on their way out.

WithMe Mobile addresses sustainability by creating a completely reusable space which is highly customizable via “Change the file, not the fixtures.’ Tenants bring in their own databases, update graphics, and rearrange layouts in a matter of minutes. This kinetic space has already housed objects from the scale of jewelry to motorcycles. WithMe Mobile provides a durable framework for adaptable experimentation, which gives us an evolutionary model where key systems were strong enough to carry ambitious and continuously evolving components directly to customers. Advanced mobile and tensile architectural systems blend the orthogonal and the fluid to permit construction and disassembly anywhere on the planet in a matter of days.

The first location was Chicago'sPioneer Square, the site of the founding of the city in the 1780's when an African American immigrant named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable built a retail trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River. Flanked by the Wrigley Building, the Tribune Tower, the Equity Building, and Mies van der Rohe's One Illinois Center, WithMe Mobile begins its journey at one of America's primary epicenters of commerce and Modern architecture.

Giorgio Borruso Design

Hardware Engineering: D4C Product Development, San Diego, Calif
Software Engineering: WithMe, Las Vegas, NV D4C Product Development, San Diego, Calif.
Graphics/Animation: WithMe, Las Vegas, NV 3dar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cube Units/Bridge Structure: Xtreme Manufacturing, Las Vegas, NV
Tensile Structure/Bridge Enclosure: FabriTec Structures, Dallas, TX
Millwork/Flooring: T. Alongi, Montreal, Quebec
VR Dome: Spectrum Oak Products Inc., Orange County, CA
Lighting: Reggiani Lighting, New York