Collaboration of Four World-Renowned Interior Design Firms... Concept of 'Harmony with Nature'
Lotte Department Store Dongtan Branch has exhibited diverse art sculptures on each floor, embodying nature and art. The photo shows the media art on the first floor.
Sunlight pouring through the glass ceiling brightly illuminates the first floor of the department store, and a giant wave ripples on the media art wall located in the middle of the walkway. The width of the corridors on each floor averages 4 meters, with a maximum of 13 meters, providing an open and unobstructed space everywhere. The department store has broken away from the traditional practice of prioritizing merchandise sales by maximizing the use of past spaces. Now, it has transformed into an environment where customers can enjoy space and nature within the department store, experience rarely encountered artworks and cutting-edge media art, and feel a sense of novelty.
A Department Store You Want to Stay In
Dongtan Branch, Lotte Department Store’s new store unveiled after 7 years, focused on the concept of ‘Stayplex (Stay+Complex),’ a complex space where families can spend leisure time together and feel special enjoyment. It aimed to be a department store where customers want to keep staying. To achieve this, the department store was reinterpreted not just as a place for shopping but as a space for sharing special experiences. It differentiated itself from conventional shopping spaces with high-ceilinged open spaces, a huge loop-shaped circulation customer flow, and the introduction of skylights.
The department store was designed by BENOY, a globally renowned architectural firm responsible for landmarks such as Lotte World Tower and ICONSIAM in Bangkok. Based on an understanding of the city of Dongtan, BENOY designed the store with the keywords ‘young city’ and ‘natural attraction.’ ‘The Terrace,’ a healing space of approximately 3,300㎡ (1,000 pyeong) connected to the third floor of the department store, naturally blends into the surrounding natural environment and has emerged as a local attraction that eliminates the boundary between the department store and the outside.
Participation of Four Renowned Interior Firms
The interior of Dongtan Branch also involved collaboration with internationally famous design firms from the initial concept selection stage, with four companies participating by floor: UK’s GP Studio and Shed, Conran and Partners, and Canada’s BuddyFleck. BuddyFleck had previously participated in the renewal of Galleria Department Store Apgujeong Branch and the interior of The Hyundai Seoul.
Lotte Department Store chose ‘Biophilia’ as the overarching concept for Dongtan Branch. It means love for nature and communion with nature. To allow customers to feel diverse aspects of nature on each floor, media art representing water was installed on the first floor, and the ‘Upside-down Tree’ installed beside the stairs creates the illusion of looking down on a tree when standing underneath it.
The entire Dongtan Branch was designed to blur the boundaries between shopping and art, creating a space where they harmoniously coexist, almost like a gallery. The work ‘In the Studio, December 2017’ by British pop artist David Hockney, measuring 8 meters in width, draws attention. Over 100 famous artworks are exhibited throughout the store, including Baek Seung-ho’s ‘Gong, Yu, Gyeong (空, 有, 景),’ which captures the image of a peaceful breeze brushing over a traditional Korean house roof, symbolizing ‘an empty yet existing landscape.’ Visitors can also listen to artwork descriptions by scanning QR codes.
Jiyoung Park, team leader of Lotte Department Store’s spatial design team, explained, “Beyond a mall form connected by a single circulation path, customers can slowly stroll as if walking a promenade, discovering new spaces along the way. Turning around curved walls, they encounter sculptures and artworks, and can enjoy comfortable moments at cafes located on each floor. We created a space that feels new every time you visit, even if you come daily.”
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