Shed designs ‘the world’s largest luxury shoe emporium’

 The Chaloub Group commissioned Shed to create ‘an entire district for the world’s leading luxury shoe brands’ according to the consultancy, which was appointed in December 2011 after a five-way international pitch.

Level Shoe District has opened in the Dubai Mall and covers more than 29,000m2 housing ‘designer boutiques’ for the likes of Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton as well as ‘multi-brand pavilions’ delineated as Contemporary, Trend, Men and Women’s Designer.

Shed associate Matt Humphrey says UVA has designed a ‘kinetic installation, which uses the elevations of a treble height atrium space to project patterns.’ The piece is expected to be unveiled later this year.

A ‘high-end cobblers’ has been integrated, and adjacent to the Women’s Designer area the Vogue Café – a dining offer and Vogue brand extension – which will sit beneath the UVA installations, plus there is also a separate Vogue Restaurant.

Humphrey says that the overall design has been inspired by The Great Exhibition of  1851 and has an ‘expo’ feel to it – ‘although here it is a celebration of shoe and shoe design’, he says.

As such Shed has ‘compartmentalised different categories’ yet throughout each area Humphreys says one of eight celebrated themes have been balanced, with some given more focus than others in each space.

These are craftmenship, opulence, delicacy, flamboyance, technology, purist, classic, and form.

‘A consistent thread and aesthetic runs across all levels of scale from micro architecture to macro show display,’ says Humphrey.