RETAIL(UN)COVERED: A stage for the future of retail at EuroShop 2026

How Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences is opening up new spaces through design, technology, exchange, and experimentation

Rendering of the RETAIL(UN)COVERED stage: A person sits on stage in front of a large-scale projection of a desert landscape with giraffes, several spectators on seating blocks in a darkened room.

02.02.2026

With the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage, master’s students from the Department of Design at the Peter Behrens School of Arts at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) are creating a 230-square-meter multifunctional event space for EuroShop 2026. From February 22 to 26, 2026, the stage will become a flexible studio for live events, panel discussions, and hybrid formats.

To the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage at EuroShop 2026

High-resolution LED surfaces and real-time generated 3D worlds will also be part of the setup. The project sees itself as a curated space of possibilities where future retail topics are discussed, staged, and made tangible – live and digital alike.

In total, around 250 students from the two departments of Design and Media were involved. The project was made possible through the support of committed sponsors, with special thanks to the main sponsor Modern Expo. To learn what visitors can expect, we spoke with Prof. Guido Mamczur from HSD.

RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage

EuroShop 2026

February 22–26, 2026, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Hall 12, booth A34

www.retailuncovered.com

Prof. Guido Mamczur (acting) is an expert in three-dimensional communication, audiovisual design, and exhibition and event architecture at the Faculty of Design. Together with Lars-Arne Emmerich from the Faculty of Media, he is responsible for the design and realization of the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage at EuroShop 2026.

EuroShop gives us the opportunity to test our design and conceptual ideas in a real-world context and engage in dialogue with an international professional audience.

Ein Mann mit Brille und dichtem Bart blickt vor dunklem Hintergrund ruhig in die Kamera und trägt einen schwarzen Pullover; Copyright: Daniel Koke Fotografie

Our visitors can expect a carefully curated five-day program that inspires and surprises visually, technically, and conceptually – it doesn’t get much better than that!

A man with glasses and a thick beard looks calmly into the camera against a dark background, wearing a black sweater; Copyright: Daniel Koke Photography

Through real-time digital content, we create new hybrid worlds: our speakers exist both on stage and within the students’ digital designs.

Retail design will be more than spatial design in the future. It’s about creating places that are flexible, connected, meaningful, and sustainable.

For a city like Düsseldorf, with its strong retail and design culture, innovative concepts offer the opportunity to rethink traditional brick-and-mortar retail spaces as open, mixed-use places.

In a time of upheaval, when retail, cities, and societies are changing, we wanted to create a platform for dialogue – with a program focused on jointly developing solutions.

Why is the partnership between Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and EuroShop such a good fit?

Prof. Guido Mamczur: Both sides are united by the search for meaningful answers to the future of retail. EuroShop is the international platform for innovation in retail – and we contribute young, design-driven perspectives, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary approaches. That’s what makes this partnership so exciting – and so productive.

What do you hope to gain from being present at EuroShop?

Mamczur: EuroShop gives us the opportunity to test our design and conceptual ideas in a real-world context and to engage in dialogue with an international professional audience. We want to demonstrate how design can actively think ahead – and give our students a stage for genuine project experience.

What is the concept behind the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage?

Mamczur: At a time of upheaval, when retail, cities, and social structures are changing, we wanted to create not only a visually and technologically innovative stage concept, but also a platform for dialogue. With a self-curated five-day program, we deliberately focus on exchange, cooperation, and the joint development of solutions.

A creative partnership for the future of retail: HSD and EuroShop

The long-standing partnership between Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) and EuroShop stands for creative collaboration and innovative impulses in the retail sector.

At the “Leave Your Touch” special area at EuroShop 2020, visitors were invited to touch surfaces, materials, and installations, leaving their personal “touch” in the sense of experiencing, connecting, and networking.

At the “Premium City” special area (2020), HSD students staged a fictional city of the year 2050, brought to life through installations, exhibits, and talks.

The special area “fortytwo – The Retail Ball Game” at EuroShop 2023 offered an interactive space for play and discussion. Participants could write terms on balls and place them in the space, from which an AI generated live images – opening up new perspectives on the future of retail.

In June 2025, HSD’s Retail Design program opened the Retail Design Studio KÖ in Düsseldorf. It shows how vacant retail spaces can be transformed into vibrant places for exchange, education, and creativity through mixed-use concepts. These insights directly informed the development of the RETAIL(UN)COVERED stage concept.

Three thematic focus areas of the stage program

Future, Quantum AI, Technology: Retail is undergoing a digital transformation across the entire value chain – from data-driven processes and AI-supported design to autonomous convenience formats and hybrid living environments.

Community, Social, People: Cities and retail as social infrastructure for urban living spaces, local supply, encounters, and participation. Concepts such as the 15-minute city or Barcelona’s superblocks provide the framework for discussions about the impact of online retail, vacancies, and the decline of city centers.

Sustainability, Nature, Our Planet: Approaches to sustainable retail as well as urban and industrial design. This includes neighborhood-based strategies, resource-efficient materials, and sustainable design concepts throughout the life cycle.

The RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage is a multifunctional event space. What can visitors expect?

Mamczur: For us, multifunctional means flexible, interactive, and digitally connected. Our stage is not only a high-end presentation platform with high-resolution LED walls and a true on-site discourse space, but also a studio for live streaming. By using real-time digital content generated with the Unreal Engine, we create entirely new worlds and hybrid situations: our speakers exist simultaneously in different realities – physically on stage in Hall 12, and digitally embedded in the students’ virtual designs. The audience can observe and interact with both, becoming part of the production itself.

Hybrid event

Some events on the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage will be live-streamed and available online at www.retailuncovered.com even after EuroShop 2026. The events are not merely broadcast, but transformed into new content in real time using the Unreal Engine.

The Unreal Engine is a real-time 3D engine developed by Epic Games, originally designed for video games. In addition to highly realistic graphics, it enables interactive, immediate visualization of virtual worlds in real time – not only in games, but also in film, architecture, and event design. Camera-based real-time rendering allows virtual spaces and content to be dynamically synchronized with real elements.

What does RETAIL(UN)COVERED say about the future role and design of trade fairs?

Mamczur: Trade fairs are increasingly becoming experience spaces – moving away from pure product presentation toward curated platforms for exchange, attitude, and perspective. RETAIL(UN)COVERED shows how design can actively shape this evolution: through flexible multifunctional spaces, strong imagery, bold experimentation, and innovative formats conceived simultaneously for live and digital contexts.

Why is retail such an exciting topic for you in terms of design and communication?

Mamczur: Because retail is a mirror of social change – and therefore an ideal resonance space for design and communication questions. It’s where everyday culture meets innovation, architecture meets technology, and design meets social responsibility.

Rendering of the RETAIL(UN)COVERED stage: A person stands on a stage in front of LED walls displaying abstract typography, with a small audience seated on blocks in a dark studio in front of them.

What might innovation in retail design look like in the future?

Mamczur: Retail design will be more than spatial design. It’s about creating places that are flexible, connected, meaningful, and sustainable. Innovation emerges where technology, social change, and design intersect – as hybrid experience spaces, social infrastructure, and platforms for exchange. Future solutions must be open, adaptable, and tailored to specific contexts and communities.

What do these new concepts mean for cities?

Mamczur: For a city like Düsseldorf – with its strong retail and design culture – innovative retail concepts offer the chance to rethink the city center. With the Retail Design Studio KÖ in the KÖ Galerie, we’ve already created an experimental space to explore exactly this question: how can traditional brick-and-mortar retail spaces be transformed into open, mixed-use places – for exchange, local engagement, and new forms of urban life?

To the RETAIL(UN)COVERED Stage at EuroShop 2026

Portrait of Julia Pott, member of the EuroShop editorial team, with shoulder-length brown hair, hoodie and open smile; copyright: beta-web GmbH

The portrait was AI-generated.

Interview: Julia Pott | EuroShop.mag

Julia Pott has been working as an editor in the retail sector for eight years – initially at the retail magazine iXtenso, at times also as editor-in-chief. Today, she is responsible for the concept, editorial plan, content and design of the online magazine EuroShop.mag on behalf of the EuroShop and EuroCIS trade fairs. Her contributions combine editorial depth with a feel for trends and topics that drive the retail sector.

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The nighttime skyline of Dubai with the Burj Khalifa in the background and a bridge in the foreground, reflected in the water; Copyright: Adobe Express

Expo & Event Marketing

RETAIL(UN)COVERED: A stage for the future of retail at EuroShop 2026

How Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences is opening up new spaces through design, technology, exchange, and experimentation

A creative partnership for the future of retail: HSD and EuroShop

Three thematic focus areas of the stage program

Hybrid event

Interview: Julia Pott | EuroShop.mag

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