Urban Outfitters has chosen Belfast as the location for its 13th European store, bringing the retailer’s mix of fashion and homewares to Northern Ireland.

The two-floor, 15,000 sq ft (1,395 sq m) store on the fringe of the new Victoria Square development benefits from the scheme’s footfall while maintaining its normal preference for a high street facade.

Externally, the shop has a contemporary steel and glass appearance with a cantilevered canopy that extends from the first floor level out over the pavement. Inside, Urban has opted to put its core womenswear ranges on the ground floor, housing them in a semi-industrial environment with exposed brickwork, wooden floors and warehouse-style overhead lights. Upstairs, there is the women’s designer collection and menswear and polished concrete floors, creating a sense of difference from the floor below.

As in many European Urban Outfitters, the main staircase is as much a central feature as it is a means of getting shoppers from one floor to another. It has a platform half-way up that is used as a display vehicle for merchandise stories.

However, it is the visual merchandising that takes what could be an essentially non-retail interior and converts it into a space that feels fashionable and cutting edge. The visual merchandising technique follows Urban’s normal modus operandi of looking as if it were artfully contrived yesterday, when in fact it is the outcome of meticulous planning and execution.