PAN AM Flagship Store / NiiiZ Design Lab
PAN AM Flagship Store / NiiiZ Design Lab
Seongsu-dong is definitely one of the hot spots in Korea these days. Previously, Seongsu-dong was filled with manufacturing shops, including printing shops, hand-crafted shoe shops, and the leather industry. Presenting the past and present in harmony, it has a unique and distinctive culture, unlike any other place, now attracting the MZ generation.
In the area, there are various business places made out of old factories or warehouses representing both past and present, along with many new-born places adopting these regional characteristics, giving out this unique vibe different from Hongdae or Itaewon. With mass brands like Dior, Musinsa, and LCDC opening flagship stores in the area, Seongsu-dong has become the hottest spot for fashion brands. The newly opened PAN AM’s flagship store is also presenting the design concept reinterpreted for the regional characteristics of Seongsu-dong.
Our client, who had already opened the LCDC flagship store in Seongsu-dong, asked us to reflect on the area’s regional characteristics as well as the perspective of the current era, leaving the existing image of PAN AM behind, the retro and old airline that anyone is familiar with, just like in the movie ‘Catch me if you can’. In accordance with our client’s request, we focused on the fact that the factory which used to manufacture tapes is now transformed into a new place, keeping the original space, through all the changes in time and the pandemic, and came up with the design concept of “borderline of the ordinary and extraordinary”.
The “borderline of the ordinary and extraordinary” that the designer had in mind meant a change, not a separation. While maintaining the old look of the factory, which used to manufacture tapes, the designer intended to have the regional characteristics of Seongsu-dong and the brand concept of PAN AM coexist in this newly transformed space. For that, the design concept is represented in a way that the separation between the old space and the new space is vague, by installing the lights on the glass on top of the sticky residue of tapes on the floor, and these floor lights, unlike the ordinary ceiling lights, create the extraordinary mood of upside-down.
Also, semi-transparent poly materials and glass are used for the walls dividing the space in order to give out the overlapping feeling of each space, and the openings of each space are designed to be connected to other spaces or the flow of movement so that the spaces and the flow of movement can remain vague and unseparated. In addition, the metal frames composing the walls are often overlapped, misaligned, or sometimes used as the element connecting the spaces, so that the borderlines can be seen as either connected or disconnected.
In order to reflect the regional characteristics of Seongsu-dong, the main entrance to the space and the facade area has the cylinder entrance inserted into the old concrete wall of the factory, in a ‘T’ shape, to divide the flow of movement between the entry and the exit, and the inner space is obscured from the outside to induce curiosity about the inside. Also, the cylinder-shaped passage from the entrance to the inner space is designed to create an exciting feeling before a trip. This entire process of entering the space through the transitional space is meant to represent the metaphor of moving from ordinary reality (outside) to extraordinary space (inside).
