Topshop

Holistic specification  |  Lit feature elements  |  Coordinated colour temperatures  |  Stretched ceiling feature

Client

Arcadia

Location

Manchester, United Kingdom

Manufacturer

Zumtobel, Flos, iGuzzini, Mackwell, Crescent, Stretch Ceilings, Reggiani, ADO Lights

Suppliers

Light Union, Atrium

Architect

Arcadia In-house Design Team

Winner of the Best Lighting & Fixturing Award at the RetailWeek Interiors Awards 2017

The high street giant Topshop has opened their biggest store outside of London.  The Topshop in the Trafford Centre, Manchester, represents the latest in their store design and certainly in the lighting design.

Second in size only to the Oxford Circus branch, the new flagship spans two floors.  The store welcomes shoppers through two large entrance porticos, with a sloping architectural canopy and integrated LED lighting channel.

360° viewable display windows divide the large open entrances and so promote clear vistas into the store.  Due to the depth of the store, artificial skylights above the window structure ease the transition deeper into the space.  In order to represent daylight, LAPD used 6500K colour temperature to create pockets of cool light.

A warmer, 3000K light illuminates the main store environment.  We used a variety of LED fixtures due to the variety of ceiling heights and treatments.  A family of recessed, semi-recessed and track mounted lights utilising the same LED technology help the visual continuity between the ground floor rafted ceiling and the exposed first-floor ceiling.

  • retail lighting design: Topshop exterior
retail lighting design: Topshop clothes display

Levels of visual interest are high throughout the store.  In contrast to the majority 3000K light, a cooler light denotes the departmental features.  Towards the core of the store, monolithic structures mark a round break within the plan of the shop floor.  A vast circular skylight above bathes the expanse in crisp white light creating a distinct space within the surrounding environment.

Along the perimeter of the ground floor, the personal shopper lounge draws customers in.  An opaque polycarbonate cladding creates a distorted view whilst a gentle glow emanates from the integrated lighting of the pavilion-esque structure.

Adjacent to the personal shopper lounge, a grand spiral staircase sweeps up to the first floor, where the store expands into an open ceiling overlooked by a large media screen.

Amongst the background of ambient and accent lighting, departments were designed with individual feature lighting elements.  These enhancements further differentiated each area with their unique physical aesthetics, whilst keeping a consistency through the use of contrasting cool colour temperature light.