PresentedBy disembarks in Doha, Qatar, with a new flagship store designed by External Reference, the Barcelona’s award-winning architecture practice, founded and directed by Carmelo Zappulla. “We want to change the way customers feel when buying a product. It’s like making an exciting discovery” Carmelo Zappulla The desert and the dune landscape on one side, and the tech-centric redevelopment of Doha on the other. And in the center an ultimate retail experience inspired by Qatar’s unique characteristics. Presentedby Doha External Reference’s latest project designs a fluid, sinuous space that drives the customer toward an authentic experience. A digital Canyon, an emotional landscape that connects the natural Qatar formations with the sneaker culture. PresentedBy is an exhibition space rather than a retail store where sneaker and streetwear obsessives can come together not only to shop but also to feel touch, discover, and share their love for sneakers, streetwear, and urban culture. Each Presentedby store, designed by External Reference in London, Paris, and Dubai, stands out as a different, unique, innovative project deeply connected with the brand’s unique identity, and with the place where the shop is located. Presentedby Doha is located in the middle of the city design district, at Msheireb Downtown Doha, the latest sustainable and walkable city district and destination for living, leisure, and business and the world’s first fully-built smart and sustainable city district. Presentedby Doha The retail experience begins long before the customer walks inside the store. With its outer face cladded in full height 5 meter tall led screens the store displays a dynamic landscape of digital art that alters the perception of the passers-by immediately drawing their eye and awakening their curiosity. Inside the space offers an immersive retail experience centered on the best range in highly coveted and limited-edition sneakers and streetwear with iconic collaborations and urban hype collector items. It combines advanced fabrication, technology, fashion, urban culture, and design. Conceived as a digital dune, the store presents its exclusive collection upon an ever-changing technological landscape of algorithmically cut metal blades and programmable led lights that wrap the space. Far from being a static space, the interior of the store is a fully responsive environment that interacts with the customers through its dynamic lighting and interactive floor and surface mapping, creating a unique and memorable retail experience. The experience is completed with the “Experience Room” a fully immersive space where a matrix of holographic fans creates a digital show that showcases the most coveted collector sneakers. This space offers the possibility of selecting individual shows based upon the selected trainers housed inside this vault of exclusive items. Carmelo Zappulla is the Chief Creative Officer of the brand. He is the founder of External Reference, an award-winning architecture firm, based in Barcelona. With extensive experience in retail, interior, and exhibition design, the studio creates experiential spaces breaking the boundaries between architecture, art, and digital tools. The studio has built, over the years, a great network of collaboration with international professionals, which allows it to promote the integration of craftsmanship and advanced digital technologies, bringing engagement, interaction, and emotions in innovative works built throughout the world. Among the numerous projects carried out by External Reference, retails, interior and exhibition spaces, architecture, and hospitality works in Dubai, UK, South Korea, Thailand, Spain, Italy with upcoming projects in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, and Barcelona. And the Spanish Pavilion exhibition at Expo Dubai 2020.
