Up There Store
Up There Store
A new flagship store on Flinders Lane.
Traditional Land Owners: Wurundjeri People
Builder: EMAC Constructions
Photography: Sean Fennessy
Awards:
2024 Victorian Architecture Awards: Commendation - Interior Architecture
2024 Australian Interior Design Awards: Commendation - Retail Design
2024 Dulux Colour Awards: Commendation: Commercial Interior - Workplace and Retail
2023 IDEA Awards: Highly Commended - Retail
Media:
Broadsheet - 'Up There’s Shimmering New Subterranean Store Opens on Flinders Lane – With a Bold Colour Palette, a Coffee Bar and a “Funhouse of Mirrors”'', June 2023
View plans here
As part of a major refresh of the Up There brand, Kennedy Nolan was asked to design a new flagship store on Flinders Lane – a street synonymous with innovation, design, hospitality and fashion.
The brand refresh provided an immediate inspiration, providing a playful palette of saturated colour. We were inspired by the distinctive space: partially subterranean, and is characterised by a deep plan opening up at its farthest point to the atmospheric urban gloom of Sargood Lane.
Alongside our Clients, we set out a brief for a store interior which was to be theatrical, cinematic, abstract, curated, expansive and memorable. We proposed an intense green ground plane. Green is a key colour for Up There but is also a colour we feel is oddly grounding – resonant of a grassy field. The ceilings are an inky green, helping to de-limit the edges by plunging them into shadow. Merchandise is organised into discrete zones, a ‘concession’ approach which reflects some key characteristics of the brand – curating and displaying stock in themes, providing scope for collaborations, events and exclusive releases.
Up There want to be a good host to their customers – as such, there is an emphasis on places to hang out in the store. While all spaces are social, at the very end of the store there is a large table and generous banquettes; a spot to try on some trainers, have a coffee from the in-house café or patiently lie on the banquette willing your friend to make a decision, or regret the night before.
Upon entering, the customer is greeted by a flight of three steps with a tactile surface, signalling the entry into another state by altering the sensation underfoot, and delivering them to the soft floor plane of carpet. From there, they move through a gathering of suspended bust forms and emerge into the store proper.
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