Project Introduction
Basic information
Project Name: Google Store New York New York Google Store
Design Agency: Reddymade Architecture and Design, Reddymade Architects
Location: New York, USA
When: 2021
Area: 8855 sq. ft. (approx. 822.66㎡)
Project Type: Retail Space
Design team: Suchi Reddy (Principal), Sally Leung, Megan O'Brien, Suha Samara, Tianbo Liu, Ezra Wu, Morgane Dugas, David Cook, Merve Simsek
About the firm
Reddymade Was founded in 2002 by Suchi Reddy. Headquartered in New York, the firm's practice spans architecture, commercial space and interior design, installation art and sculpture. Since its inception, the firm has been praised for its experimentation with form, its imagination of color and its passion for material innovation. Its guiding principle is "form obeys sensation," a design spirit derived from neuroaesthetics, which is the study of how the brain responds to the design of our surroundings. Its design team believes that good design, carefully tuned, will have a positive impact on people's health, creativity and productivity, which is the basis of their projects from conception to detail. The firm has won several awards and her work has been widely reported by the New York Times and other media outlets.
Project background
Google's first physical retail space with the Suchi Reddy team landed on the ground floor of Google's headquarters in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York. As an important part of Google's hardware layout, the Google team hopes that this store can reflect the brand values of "sustainable" and "useful help for users" as Google's products, bring customers a good sense of experience, and they have also set an overall concept that allows designers to have a lot of room to play: "a warm and attractive space".
Brand building
In recent years, Google's continuous exploration in operation and design, as well as the improvement of pixel series hardware products, the addition of Fitbit and the gradual maturity of the Nest ecosystem, have provided a strong foundation for the landing of Google's retail space. The increasingly clear picture of Google's hardware ecology objectively requires Google to create a more direct product platform to contact and serve consumers. The offline retail space builds the use scenarios of products in daily life, allowing consumers to have a more real and immersive product experience; at the same time, it also enhances brand memory points and publicity; provides manual after-sales service to a certain extent, solves the problems of long online after-sales cycle, inconvenient communication, and enhances the service experience of the whole process of users. The completion of the offline store is based on the brand core of "user experience, helpful and sustainable", which is a supplement to the online link and makes the overall brand layout more perfect.
Design dimensions
Design concept
The design of the project is built on the core principles of neuroaesthetics and is a true expression of Reddymade's motto "Form obeys feeling". The space strives to create a relaxed and amiable atmosphere for users seeking help, guiding visitors to discover the fun of technology in the Google technology on display, in order to show the positive impact of good design and human perception interaction.
Design methodology
Using lines to guide space: A gravitational metal line winds through the room, defining space while freely connecting space, bringing playful fun.
Integration of square circle space elements: The internal space uses BOX box squares to divide the area in many places such as window, product display wall, living space scene construction, etc., while the furniture and installation shapes are mostly circles and arcs, and the square circles are matched, which together constitute the main shape elements in the space and enrich the space shape.
Skillful use of materials to create an atmosphere: the use of soft-colored pecan wood wall veneers in the overall space, with custom cork furniture and warm and soft lighting energy-saving lamps, neutral tones to create a relaxed and warm living style of the visiting space; the use of natural materials for finishes and recycled materials to make carpets also meet the "warm" and "sustainable" design goals.
Functional layout
The space as a whole is a one-level layout, the planning is distributed in a strip, and the functions mainly cover the artificial service space, product display space, intelligent interactive experience space, leisure communication space, living scene model space and window wall display space, etc., the visual focus distribution is balanced, the space scene is rich, the functions are diverse, and the immersive experience is provided for visitors based on actual needs.
One of the interesting and eye-catching is a special glass installation located inside the store near the main entrance, about 5 meters high, which is a smart interactive space called Google Imagination Space. Its top-down suspended cylindrical glass tubes form a refraction of light and shadow, surrounded by a customized interactive screen, where visitors stand, and the exhibits will rotate around to display, thus experiencing Google's best products and technologies.
In addition, an immersive product experience space, "Sandbox", is set up, where visitors only need to wave in front of each room to enter different sandbox spaces and experience the functions of specific products in depth.
material
Google Retail Stores are designed to sustainability and renewable practice standards and are LEED Platinum certified. Notable materials in the space include cork furniture, flooring made from recyclable factory waste, low-VOC wall panels made from 100% PET plastic (containing at least 60% post-consumer ingredients), and carbon-neutral flooring validated by the Bureau Veritas project.
technology
In order to show the characteristics of the product, many designs in Google's retail space apply the cutting-edge technology of the moment. For example, the lighted window box on Ninth Avenue is not only a tribute to traditional Window Shopping in New York, but also applies AR technology, and visitors can interact with it while displaying products. In addition, the "Sandbox" sandbox space uses the Nest smart home system, Google Imagination Space applies machine learning technology, and many lights use intelligent sensing technology to allow visitors to better "experience technology and dialogue technology" in the space.
Datapark summary
The Reddymade design team uses warm and environmentally friendly materials and technology to create a relaxed and interesting experience atmosphere for Google's retail space, and achieves Google's goals of "providing useful help and experience" and "sustainability" in the spirit of neuro-aesthetic design. The entire retail space is feature-rich and clearly planned, providing an excellent venue for Google products to showcase.
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