Designed by OMA, Car shops, formerly the prime sales venue for cars, are no longer the exclusive setting in which cars are branded and presented to customers. Multichannel points of sales enable customers to choose between brands and models before entering the car shop; as a result, 90% of the customers who visit a car store have already chosen a model in advance. Under the pressure of the increased fragmentation of sales and in response to changing consumer habits, the automotive retail store has increasingly turned into a space for marketing and visual branding. This is reflected in the design of the retail space: the ubiquitous vitrine typology has created a mishmash of brands and product.

Designing a store for luxury automotive brand Genesis in Seoul, Korea, led OMA to question the relevance of the automotive retail space as a sales environment and to explore its further potentials. The Genesis Space Identity concept developed by OMA revisits the conventional norm of a dealership in the automotive industry. More than an overt sales and display environment, OMA created a store design in which there is a subtler unpacking of Genesis? message. Following OMA?s research into the interaction between architecture and branding, Genesis Gangnam Store treats car display as curation, breaking away with the commonplace practice of showing as many models as possible. To emphasize the design and craftsmanship of the car, the models on display are placed against a neutral backdrop of...