Experiential retail design is the practice of building a retail space around what people do in it rather than around how many units it can hold. UNFORMALDESIGN, the Bangkok studio led by Italian architect Alessio Carta, applied that premise to the Underground Shopping Mall in Hanoi: 200 square metres delivered as an underground park, with climbing walls, a graffiti skate zone and slides cutting between levels, instead of a corridor of shopfronts with a food court in the middle.
The conventional retail brief optimises heavily for frontage. This project keeps that commercial discipline while also designing for the reason somebody stays in the building — the two working together, not traded off against each other.
Why dwell time is the metric that matters
A shopper who browses leaves when the browsing ends. A visitor who climbs, skates or brings a friend to watch stays until the activity ends, which is a different and longer clock. Retail rent is ultimately paid out of what happens during that time, so a space designed for activity has more of the thing it monetises. The trade is floor area: an underground park spends square metres on movement that a conventional layout would sell as frontage.
That is a deliberate commercial decision, not a styling preference, balancing enough frontage to trade well with floor area dedicated to movement and activity. It suits a young urban audience with time to spend — a transit-adjacent convenience mall would simply weight that balance differently.
| Conventional retail mall | Underground Shopping Mall, Hanoi | |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | Corridor of shopfronts | Underground park across levels |
| Draw | Tenant mix and frontage | Climbing walls, skate zone, slides |
| Materials | Applied finishes and cladding | Exposed concrete, metal mesh |
| Mood control | Fixed lighting scheme | Interactive lighting system |
| Visitor behaviour | Browse, buy, leave | Move, stay, then buy |
The material language, and why it is raw on purpose
Exposed concrete and metal mesh do the work here. Both are structural or industrial materials used as the finish rather than hidden behind one, which is the core of UNFORMALDESIGN’s Material System approach: everyday industrial and logistics objects reworked as architectural elements, because raw materials carry more identity per baht than applied finishes do.
There is a credibility argument too. A skate and graffiti space finished in polished cladding reads as a themed imitation of the culture it borrows from. Concrete and mesh read as the real thing, and the audience for this project can tell the difference immediately.
The one non-static layer is lighting. An interactive lighting system changes the mood of the whole volume without anybody touching a wall, which lets a single 200 square metre space work as a daytime family environment and an evening youth venue. That is a cheaper way to buy flexibility than building it into the structure.
What transfers to other retail projects
Three principles from this project apply well beyond Hanoi:
1. Decide what visitors will do in the space before deciding how many units it holds. 2. Spend the material budget on honesty rather than coverage, especially where the audience is culturally literate about the reference. 3. Put the flexibility in the lighting, where it costs least to change.
A note on demand: Google Ads Keyword Planner data pulled on 31 August 2026 records around 10 monthly searches for “experiential retail design” and no measurable volume for “retail interior design Hanoi” in either the Thailand or Bangkok geo. This is a category that developers commission and rarely search for by name, so the article is written for the people who evaluate a studio’s portfolio rather than for a high-volume query.
UNFORMALDESIGN’s retail and hospitality work runs across Thailand, China and Vietnam. Portfolio: https://unformaldesign.com/projects/
Frequently Asked Questions
What is experiential retail design? Experiential retail design builds a retail space around an activity that keeps people there, rather than around the number of shopfronts it can fit. The commercial logic is dwell time: visitors who come to do something stay longer than visitors who come to browse, and longer visits support the rent.
Where is UNFORMALDESIGN’s Underground Shopping Mall project? In Hanoi, Vietnam. It is a 200 square metre retail project designed as an underground park, with climbing walls, a graffiti skate zone and slides connecting the levels.
What materials were used in the Hanoi underground mall? Exposed concrete and metal mesh as the finished surfaces, rather than applied cladding, paired with an interactive lighting system that shifts the mood of the space without any physical change to the structure.
Does experiential retail work for every location? No. It trades sellable frontage for activity space, so it suits catchments with a young audience and time to spend. A transit-adjacent convenience mall is better served by a conventional efficient layout.
Does UNFORMALDESIGN take retail projects outside Thailand? Yes. The studio has delivered retail and adaptive-reuse projects in Thailand, China and Vietnam. Contact founder Alessio Carta at alessio@unformaldesign.com or +66 97 112 3561.
The takeaway
Start from what people will do in the space, buy credibility with raw materials rather than cladding, and keep the flexibility in the lighting layer where changing your mind is cheap. To discuss a retail or mixed-use concept, contact Alessio Carta at alessio@unformaldesign.com or +66 97 112 3561.
