5 Star Plus Retail Design proudly presents our latest high-profile event design project in Shanghai: House of UK, a flagship reception created as an immersive country branding experience that showcased British innovation, creativity, culture, and soft power.
This article explores how our team translated the vision of the House of UK into a spatial narrative that moves from tradition to innovation, creating a contemporary interpretation of Britain through design.
Inspiration & Storytelling
Our aim was to offer a fresh, creative view of the UK and what it has to offer. To appropriately serve as the “House of UK,” special attention was given to the subtle incorporation of elements from different regions and sectors, while still appearing unmistakably UK-inspired at first sight. At the same time, a modern and creative look was developed, weaving different components together into a new, contemporary design language.
While some classic features served as inspiration for the concept, modern aspects such as innovative UK architecture, digital motifs, and typical graphic design language were incorporated subtly into the overall experience.
The space was conceptually divided into several areas, with the outer circle formed by a wide corridor featuring a “British outdoors”- inspired area referencing elements from local gardens, landscapes, and leisure sports and lifestyle.
Visitors then entered the main event space through a wide connecting corridor, just like entering a house. This area was designed to feel immersive, social, and layered. At its core, the experience culminated in a powerful wow-moment with a central ceiling structure that celebrated the UK’s creativity and innovation. The areas along the walls of the 30-meter-wide circular event space were designed to reference rooms of a British house and the corresponding lifestyle. The areas were framed by modern, abstract architectural elements that framed the space and tied the various areas together.
The Customer Journey
Visitors who entered the building arrived at a registration area styled as a British front garden before passing on to a winter garden with a display of British books, tea, and cultural and educational content like museums, concerts, and a car racing training school.
Further along the corridor path, the Sports Sector featured a snooker table and a table tennis table and hosted the snooker World Champion playing during the event.
As visitors moved deeper into the space, the experience became increasingly modern and abstract. The circular central space featured a hanging, round and dynamic ceiling structure in the GREAT branding colors and a central stage. Along the right wall, major British lifestyle brands were presented within a unified showcase zone. On the opposite side, a UK Living Room environment hosted food, beverage, and SME brands, reinforcing the feeling of domestic warmth.
A classic British bar anchored the space, acting as both a functional hospitality element and a symbolic social hub.
Food & Beverage, Fashion & Accessories, and SME Showcases
The living room-themed space was designed in a similar way to a retail design project and a multi-category store design concept. After planning the customer journey, custom-designed modular shelving and a panel wall system was developed to create a flexible and efficient display solution for a wide range of products:
- Food and tableware on island tables
- Outdoor wear in wardrobe-style furniture
- Beauty products on lower and upper shelving
- Drinks on back shelving
This system allowed for clarity, scalability, and cost-efficient production while maintaining a premium appearance.
Brand & Product Showcases: Big Brands
Leading British brands including Burberry, Jellycat, Charlotte Tilbury, and Brompton were present with pop-up stores within a cohesive showcase zone. While each brand retained its own identity, a consistent front structure in red, one of the main GREAT branding colors, tied all stands together, ensuring visual harmony across the space.
Product Displays and Visual Merchandising Strategy
Products and services from the following sectors needed to be displayed: creative and educational services, culture, tourism, sports, food and beverage, fashion and accessories, and SME (small and medium sized enterprises). The many products and visual content were organized into groups and then integrated into a themed design of a specific area, such as the “living room” or the “winter garden” as individual spaces within the overall country branding showcase event.
For the living room and winter garden spaces, a horizontal merchandising strategy with products arranged on horizontal shelves was applied. This strategy is ideal for collections and color stories, creates calmness, and encourages browsing.
Cross-merchandising helped to create themed lifestyle spaces. Key objectives of the visual display and merchandising strategy were to create an immersive, lifestyle-themed country branding experience and create visibility for all products and services, while avoiding looking very commercial or too crowded.
Products on the shelves were grouped, layered and spaced out on the shelves. Decorative items including botanical images, small plants and tea pots in the winter garden and books, antique model cars and a globe in the living room were added between the displayed products for a stronger styled look and to enhance photo opportunities.
In case you’d like to learn more about visual display and merchandising stay tuned: We will launch a new visual display and merchandising training soon! (If you are interested, contact us at academy@5starplusdesign.com )
From Concept to Execution
Beyond concept design, design development and technical design, 5 Star Plus Retail Design provided production monitoring and construction supervision to ensure every element aligned with the approved concept, budget, and timeline. This ensured design integrity from initial concept through final execution. The result was a successful and highly media-effective branded country event showcase.
About 5 Star Plus Retail Design
We are an award-winning international commercial interior architecture and design company with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Vienna, as well as a partner office in Riyadh. We create branded design solutions for retail stores, restaurants, pop-up stores, exhibition stands, pavilions, events, and experiential environments.
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