WithMe by Giorgio Borruso Design: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Small Retail
Back to take another bow, Giorgio Borruso’s disruptive retail-technology concept won a Best of Year Award in 2016 for an appearance in Chicago. This time, the prefabricated mobile unit, with its customized embedded inventory technology, heads West to touch down at an upscale mall, Santa Monica Place. And we again have proof of concept: Change the files, not the fixtures. The plug-and-play modular setup can bring any brand to market, at any time, almost anywhere, with minimal on-site work, thanks to the flexibility of shape-changing robotics, adaptable lighting, and individualized videos. The one constant is “the highest level of design and architectural aesthetics,” Borruso says.
This incarnation, at 7,800 square feet on two levels, is considerably larger than the precursors—and intended to remain much longer. Also new is a digital lounge taking over the upper level. Ditto the color-changing LED pendant fixtures that help to disguise the ceiling’s raw condition. Reappearing, meanwhile, are the kinetic wall of stacked boxes, the touch-screen tables providing merchandise information, and the telescopic fitting rooms from which customers can order up outfit changes. What about the brands leasing the space? So far, the discount department store Century 21 has completed
a six-week run.
> See more from the December 2017 issue of Interior Design
> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees