Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity

Mobile devices have transformed social activities: while socializing once largely consisted of serendipitous encounters in civic spaces, social activities today mostly take place on virtual platforms defined by personalized parameters. What were once unexpected encounters are now calculated social experiences which occur in no specific physical location or hour.

Image courtesy of OMA. Photography © Philippe Ruault.

Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity is one of the three Samsung Experience Stores in Singapore with more than 2,000 sq. ft. of retail space. OMA’s design for the store echoes Samsung’s vision of integrating high-end technology and real life. In the Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity, mobile devices are not merely products being displayed and sold, but are also virtual platforms, transforming a space for transactions into a venue for social activities. Enhanced by mobile devices and applications, virtual and personalized experiences assimilate with tangible real-life interactions in the shop environment. Beyond passive consumption, customers can decide between salesperson-guided or self-service shopping. Customers are not obliged to make purchase decisions, and are invited to experience the products in different ways.

Smart tables for product display align with the ceiling pattern, generating a generic linear field within the shop; the Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity defies homogeneity through an asymmetrical layout of shop elements and the injection of themed zones. These zones, defined by Soft Scape, offer informal spaces where customers can freely test mobile devices in different scenarios: the IM Convergence zone and the Family/Kids Apps zone provide lively settings for both adults and children to experience the products; the coffee bar and lounge allow customers to tailor-make their own cups of coffee with an App; the A/S zone provides a comfortable space where problems with mobile devices can be diagnosed and fixed; and the Multi-purpose zone, which offers the option of being a private space when the movable partition is closed, is a space for training, promotion, and performance events and product launches. These zones feature different tones of blue to echo Samsung’s iconic brand identity.

The Galaxy Super Wall is a major interaction interface between customers and the store. Made of flipdot display panels and LFD screens, the wall displays product information and broadcasts product demos, newsfeeds and messages. Movements of customers are recorded, digitalized and projected onto the wall in real time – the ultimate visualization of human interaction with technology. The store also features an Accessory Wall featuring touch latch accessory drawers which form the composing elements of the wall as well as serving as both display windows and storage. Customers are able to browse display products and collect their desired products directly from the drawers.

OMA’s design of the Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity in Singapore has become incorporated into the guidelines of other Samsung Experience Stores.

CREDITS.-

Main architect.- David Gianotten.
Team collaborators.- Paolo Caracini, Jungwon Yoon, Ricky Suen (project architects), Thomas Brown, Yin Ho, Eunjin Kang, Anthony Lam, Katja Lam, Takehiko Suzuki; L'Rui (main contractor), Non-Grid inc. (Flip Dots), Raon Square from Korea (LFD) (superwall media designer).
Client.- Samsung and Cheil Worldwide.
Date.- 2013 (completion).
Surface.- 4,750 ft².
Site.- VivoCity, 1 Harbourfront Ave, Singapore.

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OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond.

OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), LANTERN in Detroit (2024), Mangalem 21 in Tirana (2023), Aviva Studios – Factory International in Manchester (2023), Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam (2023), Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo (2023), Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo (2023), Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU.

AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

Published on: June 21, 2013

Cite: "Samsung Experience Store at VivoCity" METALOCUS. Accessed

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