A collaboration between Central St Martins College of Art & Value Retail.
Production Company: Salt TV
Exhibition Design: R/GA

In May 2016, Value Retail opened a luxury shopping village, YiHaus, in Shanghai. As part of its launch, CSM students were asked to create an immersive experience, in a visitor centre at the heart of the development. The intention was to communicate the brand values and vision of Value Retail. Over 60 students from the two courses worked collaboratively, in 16 groups, to envisage the future of beauty and fashion. Their research posed questions such as Can beauty be harvested from my microbes? and What if my skin could filter the air?
An experimental development process, looking into emerging technologies and exploring materials, culminated in the staging and filming of the 16 future scenarios. In the final step of the project each of the films were further developed into propositions for immersive three-minute walk-through experiences for the same central venue.

We documented the MA students’ creative processes, augmenting their workspace with stylised lighting and props.
We then worked with them in small teams, to facilitate a series of short films highlighting their projects.
From this we created a five minute graphic documentary in triptych form which was presented in a specially-constructed space in the Yi Ou Lai Shopping Village in Shanghai.

The experience was staged for 6 months with an estimated reach of over 2.5 million visitors in that period.