New Years Eve decorations for GUM department store
Location: Russia, Moscow, Red Square 3Timeframe: 2017
Client: GUM department store
Directors: Dmitry Likin, Oleg Shapiro
Lead architect: Ekaterina Kovbashina
Photography: Dmitry Chebanenko, Kristina Makeeva
Decorating GUM store for the New Years Eve is already an established tradition, since it is the leading attraction point during Winter holidays for both locals and tourists.
To decorate the main department store in the country provided that overhead decorations in the shopping arcade should be large and lightweight.
Jules Verne’s universe, a concept of a flight as one of the most daring human aspirations and International Aeronautical Exhibition of 1909 in France are the principal influence on the display comprised of real and imagined aircrafts. Flight balloons and airships of GUM render the retrofuturistic idea of a metropolis as imagined in 1909 and fill the space without putting additional stress on vaulted glass ceiling of the arcade.
Airships and balloons hover in the lush clouds surrounded by Christmas decorations, wreaths and enlarged engravings of aircrafts from the dawn of aeronautics. Mechanical motor-powered weathervane rotates around its own axis. Carved arches inspired by the historical illustrations of the time occupy the vestibules. Additional lighting accentuates the astrolabes. Inside and outside Christmas trees are decorated with gift boxes, small balloons, illuminated engravings and carved weathervanes.
