RIBA Shanghai Windows Tayohya | nagan johnson

With the arrival of Spring in Shanghai, XinTiandi bursts into flower in this colourful installation for Tayohya. Such is the skill of the workers who create these flowers, the Ranunculus (englist - buttercup, but locally called Lulian in Chinese) used for the installation appear to be real. It is, in fact, the trees that are real, despite their candy-coloured branches. This playful scene spills out of the Tayohya store into the atrium of the mall, greeting the visitors arriving by escalator and welcoming them to take a few steps in a magical floral copse. Design Process Our first meeting with Tayoha was with Susan Pan, their President and director. We presented three designs and she immediately warmed to the floral installation and to us: we very lucky to form a good friendship with Susan and her team which has enormously helped the remote-design process. Since we were so far from our client we made a comprehensive technical drawing set that would explain the manufacture of the installation pictorially and by description. We had a regular e-mail correspondence and communicated by Skype to finesse the details, but mainly used photographs and sketches so that we could sign off the production which all took place in Shanghai. The final installation took place on two nights before the opening and we joined the crew in Xintiandi for the ‘planting’ of the flowers and final preparations. We were ably assisted by Tayohya staff including their designer and florist. We are delighted with the final result. In designing the installation we wanted to burst out of the traditional shop window, and the atrium of the retail mall allowed us the opportunity to create a scene through which visitors could pass. This allows Tayohya to display their floral brand, ‘Susan’s Garden’, to their customers and to engage more directly with shoppers. The installation also creates a setting for events, again giving more customer interaction: they held bouquet making classes for Mother’s Day and have had cooking demonstrations.