Dezeen Magazine

Singapore luxury watch pop-up store "creates the effect of falling crystals"

Movie: in our next video interview from Inside Festival, Cara Ang of Asylum Creative discusses the Singapore creative agency's pop-up store for watch brand Hublot made from thousands of crystal-like folded paper shapes.

Hublot pop-up store by Asylum Creative

Asylum Creative's pop-up store for Swiss watch brand Hublot, which won the display category at this year's Inside Festival, ran for ten days in September 2012 in the Paragon shopping centre on Orchard Road, Singapore.

Hublot pop-up store by Asylum Creative

It comprised over 35,000 black crystal shapes made of paper suspended on fishing wire to form a pavilion in the shopping centre's main atrium.

Hublot pop-up store by Asylum Creative

"Being a pop-up store, we liked the idea that it was momentary," explains Ang. "We wanted to create the effect of crystals that are falling but captured in a single moment."

Hublot pop-up store by Asylum Creative

The shopping centre's atrium space is six storeys high and Ang says Asylum Creative wanted to design something that made use of this generous vertical space.

"Rather than having a pop-up store that is just sitting on the ground level, we thought it would be great if we could create something that goes upwards," she explains. "We wanted to catch the attention of shoppers that are on the different levels of the mall [so they would] come downstairs to check out the pop-up store."

Hublot pop-up store by Asylum Creative

Ang continues: "The gems were made from paper. It was a glossy, reflective black cardboard that we found to be quite suitable because it catches and reflects light in a way that makes them glow."

Cara Ang of Asylum Creative
Cara Ang of Asylum Creative. Copyright: Dezeen

Inside Festival 2013 took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.