Back to the Future: X11 Toy Store in Xi’an by TOMO.

X11 and TOMO DESIGN are taking you back to the future. With the toy retailer’s success with flagships in Shanghai and Wuhan, the latest premises, located in the Mixc World in Xi’an, unfolds as a distinct journey into the unknown—through the belly of an airship.

As if each flagship tries to outdo the previous, no two stores are the same and, if anything, they seem to be getting more surreal. But what they do share is a retro-futuristic narrative awash with emotions, atmosphere and rich layers.

Like a futuristic blimp, the metal airship is centre stage linking the upstairs and downstairs. The mammoth sci-fi esque installation is both the symbolic soul of the store and a useful tool to display product and order spatial circulations around. The ‘cockpit’ houses the cashier area at the bottom of the installation while the head of the airship is formed by a crescent shaped glass walkway, helping to connect the two levels.

The glass facade of the exterior wall combines orderly arranged grilles with strip lights to produce a psychedelic, futuristic visual effect that delicately wraps the silhouette of the airship inside. Facing the entrance, the steel staircase of the airship guides people into the ‘unknown’.

TOMO introduced the sci-fi charm of the 1970s into the flagship with red twinkling lighting and old computer screens playing retro-futuristic brand advertisements, cleverly injected with X11’s branding. Futuristic steel frames and laboratory-style display racks create a familiar yet strange scene, complemented by similarly retro green terrazzo flooring.

Elaborate details endow the surreal dimension with a sense of reality. Novelty, exploration, fantasy and infinite imagination are integrated into the real spatial scene, as TOMO brings the retro-sci-fi trend firmly into the present.

X11 Global Flagship Toy Store by BloomDesign.

Monolithic, futuristic and a little bit ominous, this epic toy store flagship in Shanghai by BloomDesign takes us on an unexpected tour through an alternate cyberpunk reality...

[Images courtesy of TOMO Design.]