The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands - Singapore
Addicted To Retail (ATR) presents: The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the retail podium of Moshe Safdie's integrated resort.
Everyone photographs the ship on top. The business is underneath. The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands is an 800,000-square-foot retail podium stretched along the bay between the hotel towers and the casino, and it is the highest-grossing mall per square foot in the region. The casino sits at its centre, a cylindrical volume with its own entrances, and the retail wraps it on two sides so that the walk from the hotel lobby to the gaming floor or the theatre is a walk through Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dior whether you intended it or not.
Safdie's section is the clever part. The podium is cut by a skylit canal with a sampan ride, which gives the lower level daylight and a reason to look down, while the upper galleria is lined with double-height flagships. Louis Vuitton's Island Maison, a crystal pavilion by Peter Marino sitting in the bay and reached by an underwater tunnel from the mall, is the most photographed store in Singapore and a reminder that resort retail can afford architecture that a high street cannot.
Inside the flagships
The brand fit-outs here are among the most lavish anywhere, because the audience is a captive one with a long dwell time and, in the casino crowd, a very particular appetite. Watch and jewellery stores dominate the stretch nearest the gaming floor: Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier and Van Cleef within a hundred metres of the casino doors. Fashion sits further along, with the restaurants by Wolfgang Puck and Gordon Ramsay at the bay end. The sequence is deliberate. Win, celebrate, eat, in that order.
Notes for the trade
- Daylight in a mall is worth the structure. The canal skylight changes the mood of the lower level completely.
- A standalone pavilion sells the whole scheme. The Louis Vuitton island is a billboard that happens to be a store.
- Adjacency is strategy. Jewellery by the casino, dining by the water, fashion in between.
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, 2 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore. Architecture: Safdie Architects. Louis Vuitton Island Maison: Peter Marino Architect.
Tags: Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, Moshe Safdie, Louis Vuitton, casino retail