Spanish fashion brand Zara has opened a new Hong Kong flagship on Queen’s Rd.

The new store shares interior design features with the chain’s flagship stores in other prominent cities such as New York, London, Paris and Madrid.

With a floor area stretching 55,000 sqft over six stories, the store occupies the historical Crawford House, a unique period building bearing hallmarks of the Chinese renaissance. In the 1930s it was home to China Emporium, one of the greatest department stores of the era.

Originally built using a fusion of architectural styles, the building reflected the West’s influence on Asian design: the body of the building was built using reinforced concrete while the towers and roof tiles were made from traditional Chinese materials.

The Queen’s Rd establishment is based on the four core principles which Zara says inspires its global store concept: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability. The store as a whole prioritises contact with the customer. Its simplicity, accentuated by the presence of large white spaces which blur the limits between the ceiling and walls, creates a sensation of openness and freedom.

The store marks a new milestone in terms of the group’s sustainability commitments, consuming 30 per cent less energy per annum than a conventional store, saving 70 per cent more water and preventing the emission of over 150 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.

The new Queen’s Rd store takes the total number of Zara stores in Hong Kong, the first Chinese city entered by the brand back in 2004, to 12.

Inditex has 457 stores in greater China.