STUDIO SPLASH Tucks HARMAY Store Into Changsha's Underground Mall

HARMAY's newest store occupies 471 square metres of underground Changsha, on level B1 of a retail spine beneath Guojin Street. STUDIO SPLASH, led by lead architect Simon Huang, designed the project, which was completed in 2025.

The location is the story here. The store sits at the core of the Wuyi Square commercial district, inside a below-ground network of shopping corridors that connects street-level entrances with subterranean transit hubs. Aaron Shao photographed the finished space.

Where exactly does the store sit?

The architects describe a fairly specific urban condition. According to STUDIO SPLASH's project text, the site "sits within an underground retail spine linking street-level entrances with subterranean transit hubs, marked by crisscrossing interior corridors."

That puts the HARMAY store at a natural choke point in the mall's circulation. It occupies the B1 level and bridges two things at once: the double-height atrium that opens down to B2, and the north-south ground access routes above. In practice, the shop floor catches pedestrians moving through a major intersection of underground foot traffic — shoppers descending from the street, commuters coming up from transit, and browsers circulating between retail levels all pass the same spot.

For a beauty retailer like HARMAY, that's the point. Underground atrium positions in dense Asian retail districts function like corner lots on a busy street, except the traffic never depends on weather or time of day in the same way.

Who built it, and with what?

The project team and suppliers are documented. NKSTONE and Shanghai Mufang Display Props served as manufacturers on the job — the latter a specialist in display fixtures, which tracks with HARMAY's warehouse-style retail format where shelving and product display carry much of the interior character.

The credited team:

• Architect: STUDIO SPLASH
• Lead architect: Simon Huang
• Area: 471 m²
• Completion: 2025
• Photography: Aaron Shao
• Manufacturers: NKSTONE, Shanghai Mufang Display Props

Why does an underground atrium matter for retail design?

A double-height atrium changes what a B1 store can do. It gives the space vertical presence that typical basement retail lacks, letting the store read as a volume rather than a corridor lining. Bridging that atrium with the north-south ground routes also means the store's entry sequence works from multiple directions and levels at once — an unusual brief for a single-floor tenancy.

STUDIO SPLASH's text keeps the mechanics plain: the project "occupies the B1 level, bridging the B2 double-height atrium with the north-south ground access routes at a major intersection of pedestrian circulation." Every design decision, in other words, starts from managing flows of people rather than a storefront facade.

The commission continues HARMAY's run of architect-driven stores in Chinese cities, and it signals that the brand still sees premium underground positions — tied directly to transit foot traffic — as worth building for in 2025.