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“Star Avenue Renewal” - Lotte Duty Free

2026 · Seoul, Korea

Challenge

Star Avenue was built by Lotte Duty Free in 2009 as a hub for spatial marketing during the rise of the Korean Wave. Over the following 17 years or so, tourism trends and the way visitors spend changed significantly, and Star Avenue needed a new role as a landmark representing Lotte Duty Free and Myeongdong. The renewal aimed to turn it into a K-POP immersive media experience space that today's FIT (free independent travelers) and MZ visitors naturally respond to and take part in, transforming it into a destination that increases visits, dwell time, and brand touchpoints.

Typologies
Media Space
Media Architecture
Media Contents
Location
Seoul, Korea
Client
LOTTE DUTY FREE
Star Avenue entrance at night after renewal, an arched gateway under a red LOTTE DUTY FREE sign leading into an LED media corridor
Star Avenue entrance before renewal, a narrow bright corridor beneath a gold STAR AVENUE sign and metal canopy
BeforeAfter

Concept

STARIUM is a spatial concept designed so that K-POP star experiences and video content unfold across the entire space. Through immersive content, media, and sound direction, the visitor's movement itself becomes both experience and consumption, designed as a K-POP experience platform where experience and marketing work as a single system.
  

"Borderless Avenue"
Breaking down the boundary between space and experience to design a flow that leads to the brand and to purchase.1

Concept diagram linking Star and Fan under K-POP Theme, Physical and Digital under Space, and Interactive and Retail under Experience
A curved LED media wall along the Star Avenue corridor, with words like STAR, AVENUE and DUTY flowing across red and blue bands
A claw machine game on a large LED screen at Star Avenue. A pink claw hangs over a pile of colorful balls printed with the STAR AVENUE logo, while a visitor steers it with her smartphone

In an environment of ten 13K-class media screens, including eight interactive booths, visitors go beyond watching K-POP to feel and play it themselves. Reflecting FIT travelers' preference for exploring at their own pace, it was made as an experience space to enjoy "apart and together."

Hands playing the game with a smartphone controller
LED screens of interactive booths between arches, showing piles of colorful balls and QR codes reflected in a mirrored ceiling

Space

Built on an arch form applied consistently throughout, the space was designed so that the interior and the media read as a single design rather than separate elements. Moving through the Entrance Zone, Star Zone, and Marketing Zone, visitors experience a coherent identity in which space, media, and circulation are bound by one design language.

Entrance zone, Star zone, Marketing zone으로 이어지는 스타에비뉴 동선을 청록 화살표로 표시한 아이소메트릭 다이어그램

Entrance Zone, Sculptural yet intuitive spatial elements make the entrance easy to recognize and draw visitors in naturally.

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Star Avenue corridor after renewal, with K-POP FESTIVAL graphics on a row of arches to the left and a curved LED screen to the right
Star Avenue corridor before renewal, with landscape painting imagery on wall and ceiling LED screens and handprint and ad displays on the right
BeforeAfter

Star Zone, Arches running from the entrance to the interior tie the whole space together in a single formal language. The arches draw visitors' eyes and steps inward, deepening their immersion in the content.

Round handprint displays reflected in a mirrored wall under a STAR HIGH FIVE sign, beside a corridor of arches and curved LED screens
Star Avenue corridor toward the exit, with red abstract visuals on the right curved LED and booths of colorful balls and QR codes in the left arches
Star Avenue interior after renewal, with STAR HIGH FIVE handprint windows beneath a ceiling LED band and a curved LED corridor beside a LOTTE DUTY FREE sign
Star Avenue interior before renewal, a store entrance with neon signs and ad panels on the left and a corridor of display cases to the right
BeforeAfter

Marketing Zone, A transition space designed to turn the experience into actual shopping. The ceiling media guides visitors toward the duty-free store, and star handprint displays link the brand and the stars.

Marketing zone with LOTTE DUTY FREE and product categories on a ceiling LED band, and round handprints in a STAR HIGH FIVE window on the right
Golden round handprints of TWICE members around a STAR AVENUE logo plate inside an infinity mirror display window
A red LOTTE DUTY FREE ribbon flows across the Marketing zone ceiling LED among product names, leading to a LOTTE podium on the end screen
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BeforeAfter

Contents

The signature Welcome Show plays every 15 minutes, created to make visitors feel as if they have stepped into a live concert venue.

Signature show frames with colorful K-POP LIMITLESS DREAM FESTIVAL ribbons crossing above a row of ribbon-wrapped forms

Flexible Content and Advertising Operation Structure.
A system that flexibly reflects the music, visuals, and events of various K-POP stars allows content to be updated easily, and was designed so that tenant brands and advertising fit naturally into the content experience.

LED screens between arches show artists signing toward the camera with a pen, reflected in the mirrored ceiling
Three LED content frames rendering LOTTE DUTY FREE in red 3D letters, puffy fabric and water bubble textures

Viral Reach and Buzz
Spatial staging that shows well in photos was designed so that the experience and visit are shared and spread naturally.

Interactive booth screen prompting visitors to scan a QR code to start
Claw game screen asking visitors to tap Start on their phone
Game screen of LOTTE DUTY FREE cards over a 9F store backdrop

BI Design

The Star Avenue brand mark uses the A of Avenue to form the shape of a star. The form shining toward its center carries the space's symbolism as a landmark of Myeongdong and K-Culture, and expresses visitors' experiences gathering in one place and then spreading outward. It is a visual language that condenses Star Avenue's identity, connecting stars and fans, space and experience, and experience and purchase.

Before and after of the STAR AVENUE logo, its symbol and logotype, and a mood board of one-point perspective, stars, a Seoul map and an arched tunnel
White STAR AVENUE logo on black with a blue grid marking its proportions in x units

Results

The renewal transformed a space that had served only as a passageway into an immersive K-POP experience space. It brought spatial design, media, interactive and show content together into one experience, and designed shopping-linked benefits to lead to purchases within the experience UX. In the first two months after opening, cumulative visitors reached about 1.12 million, and average daily visitors reached about 16,000, roughly twice the level before the renewal.

Key figures: 1.1M+, 16.2K and 2X

Behind

Credit

Client
LOTTE DUTY FREE
Location
LOTTE DUTY FREE MYEONGDONG MAIN STORE, SEOUL
Location
LOTTE DUTY FREE MYEONGDONG MAIN STORE, SEOUL
Creative Strategy & Direction
APOLLON IMMERSIVE WORKS
Media & Spatial Design
APOLLON IMMERSIVE WORKS • DO-M
Immersive Content Production
IMFINE • PALOMINO
Brand Identity Design
STUDIO FLAG

Frequently Asked Questions

tar Avenue Renewal transformed Lotte Duty Free's Star Avenue, which had served only as a passageway, into a K-POP immersive media experience space. Star Avenue first opened in 2009 as a spatial marketing hub, and the renewal rebuilt it with ten media screens, including eight interactive booths, within an arched space.
Apollon Immersive Works led the creative strategy and direction for Star Avenue Renewal and carried out the media and spatial design together with DO-M. Immersive content production was handled by IMFINE and PALOMINO, and brand identity design by STUDIO FLAG.
Star Avenue Renewal flows through the Entrance Zone, Star Zone, and Marketing Zone. An arch form applied consistently throughout ties the interior, media, and circulation into one design language.
At Star Avenue Renewal, visitors can enjoy the Welcome Show, which plays every 15 minutes, and interactive booth content such as a claw machine game controlled by smartphone. The space runs on a system that makes it easy to update content for K-POP stars' music and events.
Star Avenue Renewal recorded about 1.12 million cumulative visitors in its first two months. Average daily visitors reached about 16,000, roughly twice the level before the renewal.
Start by confirming the size of the space, the screen layout, and where visitors will stand or linger, then plan the story and scenes around those conditions. Share your space and content ideas through Let's Talk on our website to begin the review.

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