The Animal Backbone Retail Store

Eason Zhu's retail interior functions as a sophisticated spatial narrative encoding multiple layers of symbolic meaning through its material vocabulary and formal language. The exposed concrete structural elements, resembling vertebrae or skeletal remains, invoke archetypal imagery of the animal body translated into architectural scale, suggesting that the building itself possesses an organic anatomy. This backbone metaphor operates on multiple registers, referencing both the literal subject matter of a pet-focused retailer and broader concepts of structural support, evolutionary inheritance, and the deep time embedded in geological and biological processes. The perforated metal screens introduce a veil or membrane symbolism, creating threshold conditions that mediate between interior and exterior, known and unknown, commercial and contemplative realms. The circular apertures function as portals or eyes, inviting passage while maintaining watchfulness. The presence of an actual feline within this constructed environment collapses distinctions between inhabitant and visitor, suggesting that this space has been designed for interspecies occupation rather than exclusively human commerce. The reflective floor creates a doubling effect with rich symbolic potential, suggesting parallel worlds, the connection between above and below, or the mirroring relationship between human and animal companions. The multilingual typography signals universal accessibility and global connection, while the material honesty of exposed concrete and industrial finishes references authenticity values increasingly important in contemporary design culture. The interplay between the ancient-seeming concrete masses and the precise contemporary interventions below creates a temporal dialogue, positioning the retail experience within a longer durational framework than typical commercial environments acknowledge.

This once the first slaughterhouse in the Far East, where countless lives were got killed, it is fascinating but attracts a lot of tourists. Today, this building has become a famous cultural and creative industry center in Shanghai. Respecting the tens of thousands of animal souls, we are always looking for a way to have a commemorative architecture, trying to make an icy building to echo the concrete, and to arouse the painful memories and facts of killing animals because of lust.