Shanghai-based architecture studio 100architects, led by 3 partners – Marcial Jesus (Chile), Madalena Sales (Portugal) and Javier Gonzalez (Spain), created an interactive installation in Shanghai's shopping mall by using coloured stripes and splashes of vivid colour path, which is called 'Fun Finder'. 

100architects was commissioned to develop an interactive installation for the Winter Festival 2015 of KTGA / Kick the Gong Around, a company specialized in organizing immersive events and festivals as Narrative Environments, physical or virtual spaces in which stories can unfold.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

The project took place in an unfinished structure of a shopping mall right in Shanghai downtown, at Xintiendi, one of the most glamorous streets of China. The unfinished mall opened its doors for becoming a semipublic space to host the KTGA winter festival 2015.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

For this specific event, KTGA and the event sponsor, Perrier Water, requested from the studio to create a vivid journey across detailed spaces, building a unique experience that would remain in visitors minds forever.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

In order to achieve that, the designers reinterpreted the concepts of installation and interactivity. On one hand, morphing the proposal from a simple installation into a people’s attractor, catching the attention of visitors, and on the other hand, running away from trendy high-tech interactions, and, instead, focusing on a simplistic vivid journey across spaces as generator of the attraction itself, reducing the meaning of journey to its bare minimum: the path you journey through.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

100architects' installation was conceived as a signage project, but rather than concentrating it on the destinations (different spaces across the venue which one could reach), the studio opted for emphasizing the paths themselves, creating unique visual experiences for each path, prioritizing the enjoyment of the way over the destination.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Seeking to maximize the visual impact, the project was displayed in both, 2D and 3D paths combined together, beginning with a three-dimensional sculptural signage, which would colonize the central void of the venue to make it visible from any place, and materialized with colored nylon strings. Those strings would provide first hints about destinations to reach.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Once the 3D stripes collide with the floor, they become a two-dimensional splash of vivid colors invading the whole floor with funny and intriguing patterns that would provide second hints about the destinations. Those 2D stripes were materialized with PVC vinyl stuck on the floor.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

100 is an architecture studio that doesn’t do buildings (at least not in the conventional way). The creative studio is a team of young creative architects and our work lies at the intersection of urban design, street art, landscape architecture and urban marketing.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

The studio's projects ensure the success of different urban schemes, catalyzing commercial activity, energizing cultural spaces and campuses, boosting events, creating urban beautification, and enhancing the experience of the public realm.

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

Image © Alex Panayotopoulos

Image © Alex Panayotopoulos

Image © Alex Panayotopoulos

Study on the site. Image © 100architects

Drawing masterplan. Image © 100architects

Top image © Amey Kandalgaonkar

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