Child’s play

 

Kids cavern 1It’s easy for a toy store designer to capture the imagination of a child. But the true challenge for designers is capturing the imagination of their parents – because they are the ones who will be opening their wallets and have to be equally as engaged when it comes to enjoying the instore experience.

Such an approach was top of mind for New York based architecture practice, Callison, contracted to create Children’s Wonderland, a stunning toy store in China’s adult playground, the Special Administrative Region of Macau, best known as Asia’s Las Vegas.

Callison has, in its own words, brought the store to life, blending technicolour confectionery displays with the browsing pleasure of a large inventory for all ages, and the excitement of oversized models mounted from the ceiling to create a movie-like surreal environment.

At a massive 10,700sqm, Kids Cavern is the largest retail theme store in Macau, owned by local department store operator, New Yaohan, in the Shoppes at Cotai Central, in the heart of the fast growing new casino, shopping, and hotel strip.

It incorporates confectioner, Candy House, The Princess Beauty House, Gundam store, which specialises in model kits, a Lego showcase, and Sanrio ‘giftgate’, the retail concept featuring merchandise from Asia’s favourite cartoon character Hello Kitty and her friends. There’s an area dedicated to infant supplies and a junior fashion salon.

It took the Callison team nearly a year to design the destination. They succeeded in creating a surreal experience likened by some to Alice in Wonderland.

McCRTNET 1_Page_47“There is a surprise waiting around every corner,” says Christian Jochman, Callison’s lead designer on the project.

The exterior of Kid’s Cavern, with more than 90m of frontage, has circular openings and windows and is illuminated in programmable LEDs. Colours and patterns change on demand.

“There are nearly 40,000 individual LEDs in the storefront alone,” says Jochman. “They offer up a full hour loop of unique computer controlled programming.”

Thanks to dozens of animatronics features, the whole space is constantly moving and transforming. A candy chandelier spins, a display table twirls, and an airplane circles.

A ribbon of colour changing light cuts through the ceiling, connecting the toy department to the apparel section. Colourful custom lights, some shaped as discs, others like clouds, dot the central ceiling.

More than a dozen different styles and colours of floor tiles were used to create a path that, like Dorothy’s yellow brick road, shows the way, leading customers through every section of the store.

“When you cross the store’s threshold, you enter another world, where fun and fantasy come together, with giant lollipops hanging from the ceiling and huge dome lights along the paths,” explains Jochman.

“There are practically no hard edges in the store, which adds to the flow of the space.”

Indeed, as Jochman proclaims, Kid’s Cavern is the ultimate playground for not only children, but for the child in everyone.

This article first appeared in Inside Retail Magazine’s October/November 2014 issue. To subscribe, click here.

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