Shanmu Store: A Fusion of Tradition and Modernity

Chia-Lun Chan's Award-Winning Retail Space Design

The Shanmu Store, located in Taichung City, is the founding store for a Taiwanese wedding cookies brand. The design inspiration for this project was to introduce the forests and flowers of Taiwan into the space with a visual hint. The result is a fresh space that combines traditional Taiwanese building materials with modern ones, creating a unique atmosphere that links the old with the new.

One of the unique properties of this design is the use of a variety of traditional Taiwanese building materials with a modern touch. A solid wood presentation area resembles the oceanic nature of Taiwan, while the flowers thriving in the forests morph into scattering mosaics all over the pavement. The booths, constructed out of vintage brick grilles, not only eliminate the restriction of a closed space but also funnel in shifting lights and shadows, adding a further layer to the space and design.

The realization of this design involved great attention to detail. The pavement draws attention with large areas of mosaics, while the all-titanium-plated customized door frame suspends the magnificent aura. Inside the store, cabinet doors all utilize rattan weavings of Taiwanese tradition, and logo walls and product display cabinets use a lot of stone paint to set off the quality of the business.

The design project started in February 2020 and finished in July 2020. The underlying research for this design involved selecting the materials that best symbolize the brand’s values and accentuate their key properties. The challenge was to enrich the visual experience and add a lot of design ingenuity to the floor. This was achieved by using customized hexagonal mosaics to present the flowers and vintage brick grilles and sheers to divide the booths.

Chia-Lun Chan's Shanmu Store design was awarded Silver in A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2021. This prestigious award is rewarded to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs, admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcase a remarkable level of excellence and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.