1436 Flagship Store
Gabellini Sheppard Associates, USA
“Soft as silk, white as snow, and light as a cloud,” is the mantra the Gabellini Sheppard team brought to life at the newly installed 1436 Flagship Store in Beijing, China. The firm wanted to reflect the client’s vision and the public image of 1436, highlighting the character of the company and the personality of its collections.
The 400 square meters boutique in Bejing’s Kerry Center provides a window into the world of the 1436 brand, revealing its cultural context as well as its central qualities of technical sophistication and relaxed elegance.
As research for the project, the design team traveled to Mongolia to meet the goats whose fur would be used to make the cashmere clothing displayed in the boutique. The store serves as a storytelling device to showcase the intricate manufacturing process and pay tribute to the beautiful landscape of the Mongolian grasslands.
Inside the store, visitors experience a cloudlike environment, with a ceiling of illuminated plaster panels balanced with a warm blonde oak that wraps around the interior to highlight its natural grain. To represent the soft touch of cashmere, the Gabellini Sheppard design team made sure no sharp edges or corners cut into the store.
Working across continents posed a challenge, but the team used the Project Sharing feature in Vectorworks®, which served as both a timesaver and beneficial communication tool. The firm has been using Vectorworks for 20 years, and the software’s advanced graphical abilities and intuitive presentation tools simplified the Gabellini Sheppard team’s overall workflow and helped them communicate their vision to the client.
The resulting store has an ethereal atmosphere that emulates the delicacy and airiness exemplified by 1436’s cashmere goods.
Originally appeared in Modus News 8
Gabellini Sheppard Associates
Gabellini Sheppard Associates is an architecture and interior design firm that focuses on creating spaces of elevated simplicity for retail stores, various public spaces, restoration projects, and more. Founded in 1991, this New York-based firm has worked on projects in North America and around the world. Made up of 30 employees, Gabellini Sheppard follows a collaborative design approach initiated by a brainstorming process to collect as much information from the client as possible. Only after that do they create an environment that allows both parties to grow and design together in a truly unique experience. At Gabellini Sheppard, it is the firm’s mission to design clean and functional spaces — ones that reflect each of their client’s needs and expands on any expectations they may have.
All photographs and floor plans by Gabellini Sheppard Associates