London studio Sybarite has created a department store for SKP in Chengdu, China, that is topped with a landscape created in collaboration with New York-based James Corner Field Operations.
Set alongside the New Century Global Centre, which is the world's largest building, the store contains 500,000 square metres of retail and hospitality spaces with 99 per cent of the buildings below ground level.
Sybarite has designed the SKP department store in Chengdu
"I see SKP Park Chengdu like a symphony, a lengthy composition with several movements that have rhythm, a pulse and that crescendo every so often," said Sybarite co-founder Torquil McIntosh.
"Our ambition in designing this immense destination whose sum of parts come together [is] to evolve the dextrous SKP language and retail offer that we conceived some ten years ago on an exponential level." The building has canyon-like walkways and angled bridges
The multi-level store is anchored by the SKP department store at the north and the future-focused SKP-S store at the south, which is topped by six water-spewing towers that reach up to 39 metres high.
Between these two anchor stores, a series of pavilions were arranged, divided by canyon-like walkways cut into the landscape that are crossed by angled bridges. These pavilions are occupied by key brands including Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada.
At the centre of the park is a glazed Central Cube, which provides light and access to the shopping...