Interior design work for public retail space inside Van Han Mall

Client: Bac Binh 

Location: Dist.10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Area: 10.000 m2

Completed in 2017

SPATIAL DESIGN 

One of the key challenge of the design is the spatial arrangement of the layout. The design brief we received from the developer was to re-arrange nearly 10,000 m2 retail space on 3 levels of the shopping mall. The tenancy are was preliminary booked by an international retail giant who stepped back due to economy reason. The owner of the development decided to take over the leasing of the area and start recruiting tenants. The business model has changed and the pocket space which was originally allocated for the retail giant seemed to be not attractive enough for single brands. VERITAS Architects received the design task to arrange the leasing lots, a mixture of enclosed shops and open kiosks to maximize the visibility and the attractiveness. The leasing team targeted 3 different kind of tenants on the 3 levels as usual in the commercial units. On the ground level we designed space for high quality and luxury brands, accessories. On this level we maximized the circulation flow coming from main entrance into the central hall. To capture the interest of the shoppers we created attraction points we called “node points”. Initially we advised those points to be a meeting and info point, with a possible extension of using as reading corners or even coffee corners in the future. The node points are vertical attractions going through the 3 levels in the same position, giving a strong landmark for shoppers. Those landmarks are visible from the main hall of the shopping mall as well as from the escalators inside our tenancy areas. On the second and third level we designed more enclosed boutique shops for medium brands and bookstore.

COMFORT 

Our main goal during the design to make to shopping experience convenient for the customers. The landmarks we created must be good and effective coordination, meeting points. We designed relaxing, sitting area around the node points combined from moveable, adjustable units. Those units are including mini tables and footstools. The pentagonal shape of the units gives a high diversity of shapes and forms the shoppers can create from the footstools. This way the spaces around the node points are always different as the shoppers moving the units around.

In order to improve the coordination within the 3 levels, we chose 3 different kind of color theme for the landmarks and decorations. Those colors are referring to significant symbols of the nearby local society.