Reflective surfaces in retail spaces

Tasked with creating experiential retail spaces that attract and engage potential customers, interior designers and architects today have a range of tools at their disposal. Not least among them, shiny ones…

By Ramoprimo and Peter Smisek

November 21, 2023 | 11:00 pm CUT

Various Associates new HAYDON flagship store in Hangzhou, China, combines geometrical reflective and matt surfaces to create an experiential retail space. Photos: SFAP

In today's digital age, many brick-and-mortar stores have transformed into fanciful landscapes, enticing shoppers with promises of Instagram-friendly moments. In the hands of a skilled architect, this can take on a number of forms, but as our selection of designs shows, reflective surfaces have become one of the mainstays of contemporary retail interiors.

The reflective surfaces, whether mirrored or matt, help create a number of discrete zones for shoppers at Gonzalez Haase Architects' Modes Porto Cervo store. Photos: DSL Studio di Delfino Sisto Legnani

In the Sardinian resort town of Porto Cervo, Gonzalez Haase Architects have realised the new Modes Porto Cervo store, using a mix of reflective surfaces, bold shapes and bright colours. Using the building's irregular floorplan to their advantage, the designers have positioned counters, freestanding shelves, and space-dividers to create specific zones where clothes and accessories can be displayed and snapped. Bright colours alternate with mirrored and glossy surfaces to create a dazzlingly varied space, while still allowing the goods to stand out and take the leading role.

Various Associates' HAYDON Hangzhou store incorporates customised spotlights which, along with the reflective surfaces create a bright environment, inviting shoppers to explore. Photos: SFAP

In eastern China's Hangzhou, the new HAYDON Hangzhou flagship store by Various Associates features a multi-level retail experience. Sinuous, mirror-lined curves guide shoppers into the store, where rows of display units, each fitted with a dedicated horizontal mirror, display the brand's cosmetics in a setting more reminiscent of a jewellery store. Combining matt and reflective surfaces within an all-encompassing geometry helps to bring an experiential element to this retail interior.

Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra's use of reflective and metal surfaces unites the different levels of MKR Store in Seville and helps bring light into the basement space. Photos: Fernando Alda

In Seville, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra's MKR Store combines a steel floor, expanded aluminium foam panels and reflective mirrored elements to create a small, light-filled store across a ground floor and a basement. A robust, corkscrew steel stair connects the two levels, which not only use the same materials, but also feature the same circular steel display element as their respective focal point.

Occasional bold forms aside, reflective metal surfaces in RAMOPRIMO's TGY Multi-Brand Fashion and Events Store in Shenyang create a shimmering backdrop for fashion displays and events. Photos: Marcella Campa

Reflective floors also form an important feature in the TGY Multi-Brand Fashion and Events Store in Shenyang, north China. Designed by RAMOPRIMO, the shop can be used to stage various events such as photoshoots, influencer campaigns, ad-hoc exhibitions and various pop-ups. Featuring a rotating entrance element, which can serve as a display or a nook depending on the programme, a runway zone lined by arched displays and a café, the interior can be adapted to suit different needs. A material palette of reflective surfaces includes polished steel floors, a curved divider that conceals the fitting rooms, and a latticed lighting armature overhead, all of which help to unify this multi-purpose space.

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Reflective surfaces in retail spaces

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