23I90
architects
SNS Premium Outlet, Dubai
Retail · Madina Mall, Dubai, UAE
To design a children's fashion outlet in one of Dubai's established retail malls is to operate within a set of conditions that are simultaneously generous and demanding. The floor area is fixed, the footfall is high, the merchandise is dense, and the brand must announce itself from the mall corridor before a single item of clothing can be seen clearly. At SNS Premium Outlet in Madina Mall, 23/90 Architects resolved these conditions through a design language built on botanical lightness and graphic identity, producing a retail environment that is cheerful without being chaotic.
The facade is the project's primary act of communication. A vertical column of backlit SNS lettering runs the full height of the shopfront, each letter separated by elongated leaf forms that echo the brand's botanical identity. To its right, the glazed storefront carries large etched geometric petal motifs, their curved forms cutting across the glass in a pattern that is simultaneously decorative and functional, screening the interior partially while drawing the eye toward it. The facade does not shout; it signals, confidently and at the scale of the mall corridor.
Inside, the entry is marked by a large sculptural installation, an interlocked golden form suspended from above, its looping geometry catching the track lighting and casting warm reflected light across the arrival zone. This object establishes a register of playfulness that runs through the entire interior without descending into novelty.
The background walls carry a mural of painted leaf and botanical motifs in green and amber against a concrete-texture ground, extending the brand's natural vocabulary across the full perimeter. Against this field, chrome steel hanging rails and white gondola units organise the merchandise in dense, navigable runs. The system is efficient and readable, handling the volume of a children's multi-category outlet without losing the warmth of the overall environment.
The project marks 23/90 Architects' first completed work outside Bangladesh, delivered for a Bangladeshi-owned retail enterprise operating in the Gulf market. That it reads as a confident piece of mall retail rather than an exported local sensibility is itself a measure of the practice's range.
