Miele’s Shanghai concept store has won an international award for retail design this week.
Singapore’s stunning experiential store Candylicious at Resorts World was runner-up.
The honours were part of the MIPIM Asia real estate awards, Miele winning Gold and Candylicious Silver in the Best Retail category. Retail was included as a category for the first time this year in the five year history of the event.
MIPIM Asia delegates voted for their favourite projects during the show and thus determined the gold and silver rankings.
The Shanghai Miele store was constructed in a spacious 1930s residence on Shimen Yi Lu in Jing’an. It was designed by Venetian designers Andrea Destefanis and Filippo Gabbiani of Kokai Studios.
“Miele was never a top luxury brand, but they made simple, long-lasting designs and wanted to get ‘inside’ as a luxury brand,” Destefanis told CNN of the design of the Miele store recently. “That’s why they came to us.”
The German appliance maker had tested a retail store concept in Hong Kong with considerable success and another in Chile, encouraging its move into Shanghai.
In Shanghai it was seeking to build a “home of the future” within the walls of a traditional Chinese villa. Modern appliances are positioned in various rooms replicating a modern living layout in a historic building.
“Miele has been around 112 years, so heritage is extremely important to them,” said Destefanis. “Connecting Miele’s image to the image of the historic Shanghai villa was something we kept in mind.”
“Some of our customers are referred here by their interior designers and end up buying the whole kitchen,” says Tiffany Shi, the PR and event manager for Miele Shanghai.
Candy Heaven
Candylicious opened its first store in The Dubai Mall just two years ago, describing it as the world’s largest lolly shop at 10,000sqft.
There are now three stores in Singapore – the 9000sqft Asian flagship at Resorts World opposite Universal Studios which opened in September 2010 and won MIPIM’s silver this week, another in Takashimaya on Orchard Rd and a third on Marine Parade. Further stores are planned around the Asia region.
At Candylicious, displays showcase brands ranging from the exclusive Chicago chocolate Vosges through to mainstream favourites like Hershey’s and Reese’s.
Conceptualised by Gill Capital, it was originally a one of a kind concept elevating a simply candy store to a “state of the art world class destination”.
“Developed on the foundation of representing fantasy, joy and irreplaceable childhood memories, it combines candy and the world of imagination into a hip and fashion forward candy store,” the company explains.
The store was designed to encourage maximum interaction with customers, engaging with sight, sound, smell and touch.
“As one walks through the store there is a continuous sense of discovery – one can explore the colourful world of candy with visually mesmerising pillars embedded with sweets, a canopy of lollipop trees covered with dangling lollipop favourites and the Candylicious Airplane ‘taking off’ overhead.
Candylicious boasts more than 5000 kinds of candy and chocolate and the largest pick and mix wall in Asia and the Middle East.
“At Candylicious, our mission is simple; eat happy,” says Sunaina Gill, director of Shopping Bag. “Our goal (in Singapore) was to create an entire confectionery experience for the customer.
“Candylicious is about buying things you’ve never seen anywhere else and you can indulge in a royal offering of mouth watering confections from all over the globe.”
The MIPIM Asia Awards jury, which selected the 2011 winners to compete for excellence, is comprised of an international panel of real estate experts and chaired by Dr Ngee Huat Seek, director or the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) Real Estate.
