042 PROJECT 3 PROJECT INFO


Location 3F, Uniwalk shopping mall, Shenzhen, China


Size 6,000m2


Completion date October 2020


Design company X+Living


Creative designer Li Xiang


Project director Fan Chen


Project supervisor Chen Xue, Xu Feng


Customised furniture X+Living Product Development Department


Product director Justin Chow


Clockwise from top left The ebullient pink restaurant space; X+Living has incorporated multiple levels and pathways to enhance the mystique of the club; Li Xiang has concealed all functional elements inside and behind bulbous designs


Contributing to the topsy-turvy feel is the absence of straight lines, replaced everywhere with inviting curves; their irregularities and ridges make the shapes more vegetal than geometric. Functional elements are integrated: cabinets and shelving camouflaged as plants, seats are shaped like flowers, and hanging ‘bulbs’ have lighting and sound equipment within them.


X+Living’s internal product development department was responsible for the custom- built furniture, and the consistency of design


– across all furniture and interiors – helps to preserve the setting’s magic. Nor is any space spared the interior treatment. (In a surprise move, the most monochromatic moment is in the ball pond, featuring all-white balls in contrast to the usual mix of colours.) The restaurant is a bright mix of pastel shades, across canopies, seating, flooring and furniture; its excess of repetitive elements gives a Queen of Hearts feel. There are separate classrooms and learning spaces for children, including a


Previous page X+Living’s centrepiece for Meland Club stokes the imaginations of its primary audience: children


Left Even the grandeur of the bathrooms remains playful instead of pompous


‘cuisine classroom’ where furniture is transformed into oversized fruit and vegetables, with a colourful papaya print across the floor.


The bathrooms have a more glamorous look, where a marble-clad basin with gold fixtures sits beneath a ceiling padded with eau de Nil-coloured lozenge shapes – the pale green shade frequently associated with London’s Fortnum & Mason.


There is a shift of mood in the separate video game area, where the designer has created a ‘cyberpunk palace’, taking on the aesthetic attributes of video games – neon lighting and references to animated characters. X+Living has previously designed a Meland Club in Wuhan, as well as other family-focused parks across China. Although the practice excels with these projects, it also applies its playful, imaginative touch to hotels, and retail – making good use of optical illusion if you’ve seen its never-ending bookshops, shelves multiplying in all directions – all sectors in which a little escapism can go a long way. What Xiang hopes to offer is a break from the ‘stereotyped buildings’ and ‘increasingly similar cities’ that she says get in the way of dreaming. Instead, she has pursued the ‘throbbing of dreamlike space’, as well as a ‘refuge’ for childlike innocence and curiosity, letting her own imagination roam free and leaving no element untouched to do so.


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