Studio X developed a next-generation IKEA store concept for IKEA Asia, tested in Taiwan.
Our founders signed this project with IKEA while still working from home, when Studio X was in its infancy - and, fittingly, from an IKEA kitchen table.
Process
Concept Design
Schematic Design
Detail Design
Tender Documentation
Tender Management
Construction Support
Post-Completion Review
Codenamed 'What if?', the project was an exercise in pushing the boundaries of what is possible from a store design and customer experience perspective, while staying inside the operational framework that makes the IKEA model work. Ideas were formed in collaboration with the IKEA Asia senior management team, using the Asia World Store in Taiwan as the testbed.
The concept is anchored around experience. It seeks to leverage the cross-merchandising potential of the IKEA catalogue while solving problems the modern customer meets in store - navigation, merchandising strategy, display hierarchy and access to service.
We proposed pockets of experientially rich retail theatre within the store journey: maker demos and build tips, IKEA hack workshops, cooking classes. Places to learn the range by using it.
An early project, and an important bookmark in the Studio X story - the first retail store work we were appointed to, and the start of a long line of it.
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(Approach)Keep everything that makes IKEA one of the most enduring retail brands in the world. Fix the parts that frustrate the customer.
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The exercise was internal rather than a commission to build, developed with the IKEA Asia senior management team and tested against the Asia World Store in Taiwan. The value of a project like this is not a completed store - it is the ability to interrogate a retail model that already works extremely well, and identify where it no longer serves the customer.
Studio X's involvement covered the pre-concept stage. The thinking that came out of it - on navigation, merchandising hierarchy, service access and experiential zones within a large-format store - has informed how we approach retail work since.
Adrian Worth
Managing Director, IKEA North Asia
Dairy Farm Group
Working with Sam and Rufus at Studio X proved helpful in relation to a challenging project we faced in one of our existing stores. The guys were open-minded, took a genuine interest in our business and after considering the situation presented a range of possibilities. I found them easy to work with, very receptive and responsive.
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