Image Credit : Photography Credit: Jialing Mew
Project Overview
Chas Clarkson’s “A Dandenong Ranges Festive Garden” decoration program was a resplendent in-centre, experiential garden-scape concept.
A collection of bespoke decorations that fused contemporary designed festive motifs, wrapped and draped exquisitely with artificial foliage inspired by the flora found in fern gullies in the neighbouring foothills of the Dandenong Ranges.
The Chas Clarkson decoration program beautifully explores the harmony between high-end architectural design and the untamed nature of the local temperate Australian native rainforest habitat.
The Dandenong Ranges Festive Garden design was developed as a decorative, experiential mechanism to announce that Christmas had arrived in-centre and to imbue visiting shoppers and diners with a very localised 'spirit of joy'.
The Glen's retail landscape was transformed into a curated festive experience which saw its entrances adorned with elegant gold & silver metal illuminated pyramid trees and hexagon domes. Its retail corridors were crowned with rows of giant fractal gold & emerald metal foliage wreaths. The food court and lower ground floor were bedecked with floating beams of bronze with cascading ferns and, at the heart of the experience, a hyper-stylised Santa experience which paid homage to Alice in Wonderland’s keyhole and the overgrown wonderment of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel 'The Secret Garden'.
Once the decoration program was in place, the bespoke decorations created activation zones which, in the lead up to Christmas Day, became Christmas beacons for numerous festive events planned by The Glen's Marketing Team and community groups
Organisation
Team
Tim Clarkson (Managing Director), Andreas Zehntner (Creative Director), Karl Grassl (Design Manager), Georgie Corkett (Industrial Designer), Ainslie Asher (Industrial Designer), Mikayla Austin (Designer), Gerard Ryan (Production Director), Gary Lucey (Bespoke Production Manager), Tracy Martins (Core Production Manager), Lucie Sekaninova (Production Coordinator), Narelle Lloyd (State Manager), Carmen Quinn (Senior Account Manager)), Nathan Kyne (VIC Project Manager), Braeden Mueller- Knelange (VIC Project Coordinator), Margaret Farr (Project Manager), Adam Walker (Supply Chain Manager), Andrew Thant Zin Oo (Logistics manager)
Project Brief
In 2019, Chas Clarkson had the honour of designing and delivering a world-class, festive place-making decoration program for The Vicinity Centre’s newly-transformed South East Melbourne Shopping Centre 'The Glen'.
Christmas 2019 marked the completion of stage three of five in The Glen’s $460M transformation and the opening of their 13,500sqm Fashion and Lifestyle precinct. The centre was transformed into a leading destination that would deliver a world-class experience for its customers where they could shop, socialise, relax, dine and live, both now and into the future.
It was imperative that the festive decoration program marked the beginning of a new era for both the centre and the community whom inhabited it. The key stakeholders in the project required the decoration program to have local relevance, meaning and be non-traditional.
The decoration program design was required to be sympathetic and complementary to the expansive architectural building and landscapes created by the award-winning Melbourne-based design house 'NH Architecture'.
By 2020, The Glen would be home to: more than 250 stores & service enterprises; an indoor/outdoor dining precinct; and by mid-2023, sit beneath a $450M three-tower luxury residential complex called 'Sky Garden'.
The Glen services a diverse customer base which spans a wide range of age groups and ethnicities, and has a higher than average disposable income. Their customers are savvy and have a love for the local lifestyle but also crave Melbourne city designer food experiences and world-class retail shopping experiences.
Project Innovation/Need
This stunning Christmas concept draws inspiration from the beauty of nature. The Glen’s architectural style is complemented by the lush greenery and metallic finishes, while the modern geometric forms add an elevated level of sophistication to traditional Christmas shapes.
The brief asked for the delivery of a unique Christmas concept for The Glen, reflective of our art curatorial vision – ‘fashioned by nature’. The key design objective was to align the Christmas landscape with the existing design elements at The Glen - formed to reflect the leafy pocketed landscape of Glen Waverley. In addition to the lush greenery, we asked that the decorations feature trims and traces of natural materials including wood, florals and metallics. Added to the design brief was the request for a series of sensory experiences to inspire and delight everyone who visits the centre at Christmas.
Design Challenge
Visually, the challenge was to create a non-traditional, contemporary Christmas decoration scheme which still conveyed the festive spirit. The line between ‘Christmassy’ and ‘Not Christmassy enough’ can sometimes be a fine one! Our client wanted us to invoke the essence of Christmas using fewer, statement pieces to create a high impact visual, as opposed to a scheme which required volume to make a visual impact.
As always, one of our challenges was to design these large scale, impressive, high-impact decorations in a way which allowed them to be broken down into smaller component pieces for storage and transportation. The components need to be easy to assemble onsite and simple to install in order to be able to meet the installation and dismantle budget year on year.
Working with a complex variety of stakeholders (including the shopping centre, the interior designers of the new building and an array of suppliers and manufacturers) during a specification-heavy design process was a further challenge. As well as ensuring the surface finishes across all products from all manufacturers were cohesive and seamless.
Sustainability
The Glen Christmas decoration program, delivered by Chas Clarkson, was produced by a local and international network of suppliers who are all striving to lower their carbon footprint and ethically source their manufacturing materials. All the decorations within the suite of decorations can be broken down and stripped into their various base materials (such as PVC, aluminium, plastic, etc.) and be recycled.
Low voltage LED lights were used throughout the decoration suite. These warm, white fairy lights were used in conjunction with shiny, highly reflective surface finishes to maximise the impact of the minimal lighting.
The Glen Lifespan strategy for their decorations suite is for it to be used for an initial 5 year phase in their centres and then for it to be either rotated to a smaller, Vicinity-owned regional centre or donated/sold to a charity or non-competing business.
Pop-Ups, Display, Exhibit & Set Design
This award celebrates innovative and creative design for a temporary building or interior, exhibition, pop up site, installation, fixture or interactive element. Consideration given to materials, finishes, signage and experience.
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