What Makes a Store Worth Visiting?

On Labs, Zurich. Image: On, from the On Labs design portfolio.

IN GOOD FORM / A—N PERSPECTIVE

A beautiful store can win a photograph. Earning another visit asks more of it.

There needs to be something to do, something to discover and a reason to feel comfortable staying. That changes the brief. Alongside materials, lighting and merchandise, we need to design for the moments that give a place a life: arriving early, meeting someone, trying something unfamiliar, returning without a purchase in mind.

Two references from fashion and performance make that relationship tangible. On Labs in Zurich shows how a room can accommodate a changing programme. Balenciaga’s TechWear launch shows how a collection can extend into an experience. Together, they raise a useful question for retail design: what does the space allow people to do?

On Labs, Zurich. Exterior view. Image: On.

Give the room another use

On’s Zurich flagship at On Labs opened in June 2022. Its project portfolio describes 350 square metres of retail space designed to be 90 per cent modular, with movable walls and installations allowing the room to accommodate events and community activities.

The detail becomes more interesting in practice. In an interview reflecting on the store’s early years, the team described moving installations aside for in-store HIIT sessions. Clothes remained visible on the racks; staff wore the product while taking part. The retail environment could become a place to move without losing its identity.

For a designer, this is where the drawing has to meet the operating plan. How long does the reset take? Where do fixtures go? Can one person move them? Where can someone leave a bag, sit down or wait for a friend?

These are small decisions with spatial consequences. Flexibility becomes useful when the team can actually use it on an ordinary weekday.

Balenciaga TechWear, Fall 2026. Image: Balenciaga.

Let people enter the idea

Introduced within Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Fall 2026 collection, Body & Being, Balenciaga’s TechWear connects technical clothing with the house’s fashion language. The launch extended into a collaboration with Barry’s, with studio takeovers across cities including London, New York and Sydney.

Customised classes, changes to the studio décor and a co-branded smoothie gave the collection a setting and a sequence. People could encounter the proposition through an activity.

The design opportunity is the continuity between those encounters. An invitation, an arrival, the room, the clothing and the moment afterwards can all express the same point of view. That requires a clear idea of the experience before anyone starts adding screens, signage or a café.

Design the sound of staying

Sound belongs in that early conversation. A store can look generous and still feel uncomfortable if voices compete with the music or every surface sends noise back into the room.

For A—N, the useful questions are specific. Can two people talk easily beside a fitting room? Does the energy change between the entrance and a quieter place to sit? Can the team adjust the volume for a launch, a busy Saturday or the first hour of trading?

Music selection, speaker placement and acoustic materials need to work together. Local artists and selectors can give a space character, but the everyday listening experience needs the same care as the opening-night playlist.

Make the second visit part of the brief

A repeat visit can be very simple: a familiar welcome, a useful service, a place to meet, a programme someone wants to join again. The architecture should make those encounters easy to host.

That is the thread I take from these references. Design the room and the rhythm of its use together. Give the team practical ways to adapt it. Leave space for people to develop their own relationship with the place.

Before signing off a retail concept, I would ask one question: what would bring someone back next week?

Curated and written by Alexa Nice | Studio A-N

DESIGN. CULTURE. PROGRESS.

Sources

On — Building community through retail. Historical account of the Zurich team’s early programming, rather than a statement of current attendance.

On Labs — project and design portfolio.

Balenciaga — TechWear and Balenciaga | Barry’s. Launch references; the listed activations took place in June and July 2026.