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Super Luxe Light Torquil McIntosh of London-based architecture and design practice Syabrite was given the keys to the city of Xi’an for the creation of a new 250,000sqm, 20-storey, luxury landmark, SKP store in China’s former capital Xi’an. Images: Kristen Pelou
Home to more than one thousand highend global brands, such as Hermes, Gucci, Dior and Chanel, SKP features multistorey event spaces, boutique cinemas, restaurants and cafes as well as an airy garden terrace designed in collaboration with structural engineers Arup. Under the ‘Rendezvous’ umbrella, visitors find a wine bar, restaurant, art gallery and several niche boutiques. In both scale and scope SKP Xi’an’s super luxe environment is as much about creating an immersive and
experiential space as it as about creating something beautiful. The project took just under three years to complete from start to finish, with its location proving a challenge to the Sybarite team. Close to both Xi’an’s ancient City Wall’s South Gate and the region's Parliament building in China’s oldest city, the façade had to be sensitive to the surroundings and in no way ostentatious. It needed to be architecturally simple and sit back, humbly, within its environment.
To achieve this, the team took inspiration from the Forbidden City and Ming Dynasty architecture. In contrast to the exterior fortress walls; it is when you are up close to the skin of SKP Xi’an that you appreciate the intricate bas-relief honeycombed façade of brushed bronzed brass. At the heart of every SKP project lies ‘the SKP curve’. “We always want visitors to know exactly where they are without having to explicitly remind them,” says Syabrite's Torquil McIntosh. “We created the curve
