An unrealized 2019 design for an IWC Schaffhausen watch boutique in Shanghai — a compact 200 sqm retail interior organized around a central curved glass display island, with sculpted gold-toned wall panels and black marble flooring.
Asymptote’s design for an IWC Schaffhausen boutique in Shanghai was commissioned in 2019 as a compact retail interior — roughly 200 sqm — within a luxury shopping district. The project was not realized; the following describes the proposed design.
Spatial Composition
The proposal organized the space around a central display island — a curved glass vitrine on a raised platform — set within a room defined by sculpted gold-toned wall panels and black marble flooring. Matte black display volumes were distributed across the floor to create subordinate viewing zones without subdividing the room into separate compartments, allowing the full retail program to remain legible as a single continuous space.
Material Language
The palette was deliberately restricted: sculpted gold-toned wall panels as the primary enclosing surface, black stone flooring underfoot, curved glass vitrines for the watches, and matte black case volumes for secondary display. The gold was proposed in a brushed finish rather than polished to reduce glare around the vitrines and keep the watch faces legible under boutique lighting conditions.
