Tell us more about your company’s history, client profile and USPs
Sybarite was founded in 2002 with a niche specialism in luxury retail and all that bolts on to the retail experience, organically moving into hospitality over time.
The business takes a holistic approach to projects with a purposeful blending across the art disciplines, meaning it is not your typical corporate architectural practice.
Our projects are made possible through a network of highly reputable and loyal relationships that have been built over the last 2+ decades with the best-in-class specialisms such as glass, engineering and landscape architecture for instance and we are consistently looking to add new talent to the list.
We have always gravitated toward the avantgarde, the experimental and those brave enough in the retail business to support a bold vision that doesn’t necessarily follow trends yet takes our signature ‘back to the future’ approach. This means that projects are grounded in the past, yet strategically and visually future facing.
What is essential for our work is the creation of bespoke architectural codes (which we often refer to as House Codes), which define the very essence of the brand, developer and retail operator so that the projects are a fine-tuned extension of the brands they represent.
To achieve these codes, there is an extensive process which is undertaken at the start of each project to ‘peel back’ every layer to reach the inner core so that an essential and pure vision is derived – a bit like peeling an onion until you reach the sweet centre.
Our client profile consists of established brands, real estate developers and retail operators looking to invent, reinvent or evolve their brand offer and associated environments. We approach every project with a commerciality and long-term vision.
What services are you offering, and which are your key markets?
Our services are architecture and interior design first and foremost. We are also involved in branding, product design, and visualisation. It is key that we work across all of these to achieve our ethos of working from the micro to the macro. We are also involved in many rebranding, repositioning, retrofitting projects which require revisiting the brands in depth to create and recreate those brands and brand codes to suit future audiences without alienating their existing clientele at the same time.
Our key markets are Asia, the Middle East by and large and to a lesser extent the UK and Europe. We have always worked internationally.
Has there been an increase in physical (brick & mortar) retail outlets? (post pandemic)
There is a greater importance placed on the experiences themselves and what those entail. I would say that the experiences and how the boundaries are being blurred within those experiences themselves, digital and physical coming together within the store. With the advent of e-commerce, it has meant that a sense of discovery and curation in the physical stores is very key, the stores positioning themselves as unique beacons of taste and immersive experience and conveyors of culture and cultural exchange. The perspective the stores take matters more and more not only on a visual level – layered storytelling is essential.
For physical stores to truly succeed, they need to create connections that are lasting. The sense of ‘here and nowhere else’ is thriving, the power of social media and marketing have never been at a more heightened as now. Luxury brands and their brand homes need to capture and resonate with the minds of those existing and potential customers on multiple levels.
Physical retail outlets have always been about bringing the exceptional together, so not much has changed, yet, now they are more and more sophisticated and more tech-savvy and data driven, and the power of collaboration and the ‘quintessential mix’ is here to stay, in takeovers and in enriching the narrative.
Luxury brand narratives are like optical prisms with so many dimensions and subtle nuances, yet the design for these stores needs to support all of these angles and approaches, so it is ever so important that what we propose has longevity and strikes the right balance from the get-go and can support brand extensions.
A physical space for retail is, to this day, the best canvas, no digital manifestation can entirely replace it – digital can enhance it but not replicate it because at the end of the day humankind craves sensation and this can only really be authentically achieved in the physical store itself.
Stores need to be a tangible embodiment of the essence of the brand through a meticulously crafted environment and the associated experience/s. The purpose is to convey and understand the brand’s narrative but also get a taste of their ethos. This taste will convince the customer to ‘join’ those brands and this will give brands more equity, the brand spaces are key to this.
What has increased is an awareness of personalised experience, the importance of the branded experience in the sense of differentiation, the need for more and more exclusivity, and the need for escapism from the day to day and so the store experiences have become more and more diversified, and a large part of the floor plate is now devoted to hospitality and changing exhibitions resulting in the customers staying for longer and longer. It is all about the hybridised retail experience.
In terms of founding, Sybarite began with a roster of monobrands, some of the most notable of those are Marni, Joseph, Alberta Ferretti, for which global roll outs were undertaken. Sybarite then moved into department stores, shopping malls, leisure and now mixed use, masterplans.
What about pop-ups / ephemeral retail spaces? What about immersive retail spaces?
The dexterity of luxury brands is boundaryless, be it a standalone store, be it a store within a store, be it a beach club, be it a bar or even a coffee stand, in recent times brand have presented an image of themselves as supersized pop-ups on top of modes of transport.
Pop-ups can elevate things exponentially and can be the embodiment of the bold and the brave – hence the often-unconventional approaches.
To embrace the multi-dimensionality of these luxury brands is key but to understand the essential essence of what lies at the core of them is truth in terms of providing authentic experiences and design, it must all start from that.
Pop-ups are important because they bring newness and a sense of fun and the fantastical: retail has always been about transporting the customer. Pop-ups are also important in enabling start up brands to obtain visibility, they can be about a ‘capsule’ moment for the brand. They are all about the participatory and the art of greater engagement and entertainment.
Pop-ups are the often perceives as ‘safe branded spaces’ to experiment.
How do you see the future evolution of digital / AR?
xydrobe at Harrods is a key example of how the digital /VR experience can manifest itself within the department store environment. This is a first in terms of xydrobe and Harrods for this multi-person VR experience. It demonstrates the ability for brands to come together such as Harrods and Vacheron Constantin in their own unique storytelling and environment that is quintessentially xydrobe branded. The cinema is designed to transport and be a welcome departure from the retail experience at Harrods, creating immersive and essentially escapist moments.
Similarly, we worked on SKP-S, in China for renowned retail operators SKP, here robotics take centre stage to deliver otherworldly stories to support a retail adventure on Mars in Episode 1, on a decimated earth in Episode 2 and in a Parallel World in Episode 3.
These environments are about ‘experience per square metre’ in the physical form, there the spaces are curated to resemble those places that only the imagination can conjure up, dreamlike architecture which has one foot in the past yet catapults one forward to what could be in the distant future and why not? Retail doesn’t have to be formulaic or safe; its job is to capture and connect, it needs to be a gravitational place that people are attracted to, where perceptions manifest as realities.
Digital can help enhance that connection.
To what extent do you follow trends? What about innovation? – tell us more about trends.
We do not follow trends as they are often very transient and we are all about evolution at Sybarite, creating a concept that has the agility and flexibility to be able to manifest itself over a period of years. For example, we have been working with SKP since 2013, and have conceived and delivered 4 very different department experiences for them with one to launch momentarily in Wuhan, yet each of these experiences are formed from an initial idea and set of geometrical codes. They all identify as part of the same story and dialogue yet are purposefully unique in their own right: SKP Beijing, SKP & SKP-S Xi’an, SKP-S Beijing, SKP Chengdu.
Innovation and collaboration are the founding principles of Sybarite as well as respecting what has gone before. Without innovation and risk taking it would not be possible to challenge the very blueprints of retail. Case in point SKP Chengdu forges a new blueprint for luxury retail in a sunken format.
The site is a fully sustainable landscaped park in collaboration with Field Operations (best known for the High Line, NYC) and is in ‘conversation’ with the architecture beneath, having excavated 30 metres below ground to accommodate a light-drenched retail environment which has been the recipient of many accolades since its opening due to its unconventional approach and signalling the possibilities for the future.
Sybarite possesses a maverick spirit which emanates from myself and my business partner Torquil McIntosh and as such innovation and taking the road less travelled is always our first approach, but not for the sake of it, for the sake of improvement and retail strategy and to promote longevity in a business that is notoriously fleeting.
There are trends of course but the most important things that remain with retail and retail design are making spaces that are enriching, that play to emotion and create empathy, that possess an ethereal quality for escapism and that are exclusive. No matter how many trends there are these are the most important aspects that underpin every retail experience and should be considered at the beginning of every project as these are the enduring qualities.
Are retail concepts different from market to market? To what extent brands adapt their retail design to each market?
We make a point of connecting with the local culture and stakeholders, this is ever so important for integrity and relevance. Especially in the case of the Middle East.
We look to be inclusive in our designs so they can give pleasure at every age. There is an importance of motivating people to travel to create destinations which are unique and meaningful.
The cultural distinctions we create are subtle and subliminally wired into the design and they need to work intrinsically with the brand essence and brand image to really become seamless. At Ferrari, we were sure to have those moments which are unique to location, such as an anamorphic sculpture in the home of Ferrari in Maranello, or the 24-hour vending machine in the Milan flagship.
This idea of cultural appropriation came from the early years of Sybarite and the Marni stores, each with their very own stories to tell, the London flagship on Sloane Street with echoes of the St George’s Flag, or the contemporary zen garden in Japan, the unique adoption of an antique pillar within the design in Milan, or reference to the skyscrapers of New York for the New York store – all of these stores were filled with cultural reference but not in a literal sense, never a pastiche representation.
Which are the key professionals you rely on for luxury retail projects?
Within our studio we have architects, interior designers, branders, visualisers, artists, technicians, product designers and we collaborate with artists, sculptors, engineers, lighting architects, landscape architects and designers, local design institutes, sustainability advisers, strategists, futurists. The list changes according to project, scale and location of course. And we like to do projects on all scales, from the smallest bottle design through to an expansive masterplan.
What about implementation / execution?
All the design is handled through our London HQ, a multicultural hub for design and creation and although over 100 people it is a close-knit community that is underpinned by a strong and overarching Sybarite identity and personality. We then facilitate and deliver these projects through a framework of local collaborators with a very hands-on approach. We tend to keep working on projects for large amounts of time, as clients in retail often like to tweak according to performance and new brand introductions.
Which are your most representative projects?
All of them as they share a handwriting which is our approach and methodology! But I think that we are most cited for our work on SKP-S because it created a new benchmark in experiential luxury retail and was very much ahead of its time. I would say the same for the Marni stores, they share that same love for the unconventional and a desire not to have a cookie cutter approach to retail.
Our work at SKP is notable in that it changed the course for the retail operator to become the most successful in the world on the global stage. Every project has its USP which we have enhanced through a series of design codes and a very specific approach. Each project has led to the organic development and trajectory of Sybarite leading to the enormity of SKP Chengdu, its ingenious combination of park and high-end retail and hospitality, enriched by exhibitions, popups.
SYBARITE
The Sybarite name denotes a devotion to luxury and pleasure with an appreciation for the finer things in life. Projects are guided by the founding principles of collaboration, innovation and respect.
For architects Torquil McIntosh and Simon Mitchell, the Co-Founders of Sybarite, the name perfectly described the company culture they wanted to create back in 2002. The London-based architectural and design studio continues to innovate and inspire in the global world of luxury fashion, retail and hospitality, bringing a creative vision and retail strategy to projects that makes them outstanding and often benchmarked in the industry.
The studio’s projects can be seen in cities all over the world, with international fashion brands among their clients. Sybarite work on all scales with notable developers, operators, monobrands, shopping malls, department stores and mixed-use masterplans.

Simon Mitchell & Torquil McIntosh (SYBARITE)
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