Why Snarkitecture builds artistic ‘interventions’ in retail stores

This is the fourth and final installment of our series about the state of store design today. Click here to read more.

When the pandemic elevated online shopping, some predicted the demise of brick-and-mortar stores—the thinking being that even when in-person shopping felt safe again, the convenience of e-commerce would render stores irrelevant.

But that’s not what’s happening. At their best, a new crop of stores have become destinations, beckoning shoppers with creative displays that encourage testing products, design flairs that have them reaching for phones to snap photos for social media, and activities that reconnect them with neighbors.

A new Radio Flyer store outside Chicago, for instance, has a racetrack for kids to test bikes and scooters, while a Petco in New York has a pet-grooming area that looks like a classic barbershop, transforming what can be a messy service that’s often shielded from view into entertainment.

Snarkitecture, a New York-based design practice founded by architect Alex Mustonen and artist Daniel Arsham, is known for introducing elements in retail environments that are artistic, elegant, and lapel-grabbing.

“We come from the artistic perspective where…We look at problems in a different way that’s a bit more playful, that’s a bit more interactive, that’s a bit more immersive,” Alexander Buckeridge, Snarkitecture’s director, told Retail Brew.

Here are four examples of what Buckeridge refers to as artistic or architectural “interventions” that Snarkitecture has included in its retail store designs:

Basketball Run, Center Court arena shop, Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland

Center Court is a two-story store in Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse that sells merch for the teams that play there—the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Monsters. There’s an atrium in the center where a four-sided jumbotron used to be located, but Snarkitecture had something much different in mind.

The firm designed a two-story kinetic sculpture reminiscent of the marble runs that kids (and adults) build. White basketballs, custom designed by Ashram, continuously roll down the contraption, which has a mechanism that returns the balls to the top.

“What we wanted to do is create this kind of playful, interactive moment and experiential moment,” Buckeridge said. “We’re interested in kind of imaginative ideas and bringing that kind of joy and playfulness to a serious situation sometimes.”

Sneaker Chandelier, Kith, Paris

As part of its design for Kith’s sprawling 16,000-square-foot Paris flagship, Snarkitecture designed a massive chandelier from which hung not crystals, but rather 200 white sneakers. The sneakers are cast-resin versions of Nike’s Air Max 1’s, a favorite of sneakerheads that was released in 1987.

The sneakers are recurring design elements in the store, including hundreds hanging toe-down from the arched ceiling in one of the store’s hallways.

Snarkitecture has used white resin models of shoes as design elements in other Kith stores, including 750 cast-resin Nike Air Jordan IIs, which were part of its redesign for a Brooklyn store in 2015.

Astronaut Sculpture, Billionaire Boys Club, Miami

An astronaut is the logo for Billionaire Boys Club, the brand founded by Pharrell Williams and Nigo in 2003. And it’s a seven-foot bronze astronaut, created by Ashram, that is the centerpiece for the brand’s flagship store in Miami.

“This sculptural astronaut became the focal point of the whole store,” Buckeridge said.

Portals, Gant, Stockholm

The three-story, 6,000-square-foot Gant flagship is located in a historic building in Stockholm and features rooms with varied themes, including the Lounge, Den, and Locker Room.

But it’s not mere doorways that separate the rooms. Rather, the passageways are odd, asymmetric shapes (Buckeridge calls them “cutaways”), as if the Kool-Aid Man just crashed through the wall.

The shapes are an “unusual profile that ultimately creates drama, creates kind of a quest for the unknown,” Buckeridge said.

Interesting thresholds may draw shoppers through to see what’s on offer.

“You’re getting lured when you see a door like that,” Buckeridge said. “It entices you to go through it.”

It’s just one example of a brand engaging with customers in a way that pixels on an e-commerce site can’t.=

“There’s a real appetite for experiential design within retail,” he said. “They’re really looking for spaces and places to represent the brand in a physical way.”