Architectural History: Comparison in the Development of Retail Design in the US and Australia - Essay Example

Architectural History: Comparison in the development of retail design in the United States and in Australia. Most of the retail developers and town planners are out to redevelop existing properties and revitalizing the urban core. This of course, has become a universal trend and is not peculiar to any region or country. However, the commonalties of brands, consumer choices, concerns, evolution of lifestyle and technical skills make some regions and countries sharing the similar experiences more than the rest. United States and Europe in general and UK in particular make such a group. Australia is fast joining them, although with her own distinct flavor. Here we make a study of the parallels between the development of retail design in the United States and in Australia. Urbanization is the key to retail industry and for retailers, urbanization means opportunity. “It creates the chance for more experimentation in terms of retail formats, different vendors, new ideas, entrepreneurship,” says Ed Shriver, member of the American Institute of Architects' Retail and Entertainment Knowledge Community (AIA) and an architect with decades of experience. But Urbanization is also loaded with challenges. Space is the issue, bearing a direct impact on the costs, environment is the second, which curtails the sustainability of the estate. Then the look must be aesthetic and green. The paucity of space knee jerks an architect to build skyscrapers. Such fortress-like towers may suit to Office premises, but they certainly don’t bode well for retailers. Even the ground floor retail is not the best answer, because passers-by can't peep into the shops. The new urban life is ‘busy’ by definition and retailers realize that a few shoppers have time for a leisurely stroll through the mall. Thus the access to stores and shopping centers, besides the transparency must be highly optimum and convenient. The space sparseness is the trouble defined as the ‘location’ and an architect is required to urbanize the suburban big-box store. Moreover, the trend is changing fast. The 1980s were inscribed by pomp and extravagance, but the 1990s are marked by the smarter, leaner sophistication. The new age is an information-rich, attention scattering and retailers are forced to use eye-catching, user-friendly and functional concepts to help their stores stand out in the market place crowded by shoppers. The required redevelopment and renovation is a formidable task for the architects, prompting a full stream of specialist in the field of retail design. Architects are required to respond to surrounding environmental, urbanistic and human considerations; to help create meaningful and memorable spaces; to ensure contiguity, transparency and access to the shop; and a retailer's desire to customize its storefront. In America, AIA has launched Sustainability 2030 initiative, prompting the architects to achieve a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2010 for buildings they design and the final goal of carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030. In fact buildings account for 48 percent of all greenhouse emissions and 68 percent of electricity consumption. To bring about a massive cut is the key to sustain the business. Naturally, the retailer or the owner cannot be assumed to join for this cause sans profit. And there the architect is to point out to retailers and developers that and environment friendly building can actually cut expenses and even add to revenues. Environment friendly techniques cut cooling loads and reduce energy expenditures. This is emerging as a ‘concern’, although is yet to emerge as a full-fledged ‘trend’. But cutting of costs is the biggest incentive and well known American companies like Wal-Mart have started installing skylights to lower lighting costs. However the foremost consideration is retail format, based on social perspective and the ability to attract the perspective buyer. Thus ‘easy access by car’ becomes an important consideration. American stores like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target had very strong traditional prototypes, and they just look for locations where they can place them. (Current and future trends, Retail traffic mag). But now, just to intrude urban market, those companies have had to abandon those prototypes and starting from scratch. For example, in Manhattan, Home Depot built a small format store with no parking. It also worked its logo around the building's existing façade rather than plaster a New York building with its trademark suburban orange concept. (Current and future trends, Retail traffic mag) The swift change according to the requirements sums up the American trend. Carter & Burgess project manager and retail center expert Randy Stone says, "Malls, stores, and centers must constantly reinvent themselves to remain competitive. Architectural designs need to be updated to attract today's shoppers." (Carter & Burgess's Quarterly, Issue Two, 2004). The ‘theme’ creation is a handy tool. For the same reason, Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth, Texas, underwent a major renovation. In addition to a lighter, brighter look, the center features a major trend in mall design: themed shopping districts. Ridgmar offers districts for kids, sports and fashion. Another trend is that of Outward-facing stores. They have become part of the move toward new categories of malls. It combines traditional mall features with non-traditional approaches. A traditional mall North Hills in Raleigh, N.C. got rid of all of its original enclosed structure except for one. In its new avatar, it became an open-air, pedestrian-friendly location. Developers are looking beyond shopping to make their centers destinations for the community, Stone said. In order to increase the number of visitors to a shopping destination, developers are vigorously adding new reasons for shoppers to make the trip. Making retail venues an entertainment destination is deemed as a successful approach. Entertainment is not confined to movies. Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, Va., features a two story carousel. Other malls have experimented with ice rinks and roller coasters. Few shopping centers are providing added uses to improve convenience, even grocery stores or hypermarkets. Such entertainment packed stores are extremely common in America and Canada. As against it, malls in Australia often have grocery store anchors. They're designed with special escalators that accommodate shopping carts and refrigerated storage facilities where shoppers can leave their groceries while they hit the mall. Americans believe that grocery eats up their marketing space. Only a handful of U.S. malls have attempted the addition of grocery stores, which require an entirely new level of delivery, parking and storage. One mall that's making it work is Fort Worth Town Center, which targets a largely Hispanic demographic with its Fiesta Supermarket. A retail market report by Plunkett Research points out: "For the foreseeable future, entertainment's value as a drawing card for retail customers will be of paramount importance, especially for the retailing of goods beyond everyday staple items.” (C & B Quarterly, Issue 2, 2004.) On the other hand, the Australian experience is not a mere ‘follow me’ syndrome. As the demography plays a very important role, besides the economy and tread routes, many of the Australian developments are more inclined towards better use of energy, a better and smarter city structure. Taking the first leaf from the American developments, the Australian retail design has concentrated on the sustainability aspect. Australia is well advanced down the path of acceptable, green building development, with its "green star" rating scheme introduced by the Green Building Council of Australia. This matches a similar scheme introduced in America - the U.S. Green Building Council (which developed the LEED rating system). Recently, a 30-year-old, 28-level building in Melbourne's central business district received a "five star" Green Star rating for the design of its refurbishment. The Kador Group's office building is being progressively upgraded over a number of years. Similarly, the Investa Property Group's new head office at Deutsche Bank Place in Sydney has received a green fitout, and was awarded a "five star" Green Star rating. The changes brought about included - no light switches, better ventilation, electrical sub-metering to save on bills, PVC minimization and the use of sustainable timbers. Obviously, the Australian stress is much more elaborate than the Americans, where perusal to green technology is mainly the architects burden. For example, to minimize the electricity consumption, instead of by light switches in the office, lighting is instead controlled by a network of occupancy detectors that detect movement and illumination at the desk level and adjust light levels accordingly. The detector dims the fittings to off or brightens them according to the light in the room. Sustainable buildings create sustainable business. A significant new feature of the American trend is pop-up stores. On 2nd February this year, the über-chic discount retail store Target, opened a store in lower Manhattan, to display this latest high-fashion-at-low-prices design line. And the store was closed on Feb. 5. Even massive Wal-Mart adopted the same concept last April, it showed its new fashion line Metro 7 in a Fashion Cabana in Miami's South Beach district, open for only two days. The tactic is to show a sense of urgency in the consumers mind. Naturally, such a rush bears a tough job for the architects. Australian market is still not known to be in such a rush, although they are a way ahead of the old bale economy. To sum up, the Australian architectural development of the retail premises is virtually on the American lines, although it is propelled by a totally different engine. The Australian engine is of developing urban state of art space and retail premises turn part of it. On the other hand the Americans are developing the retail premises in a state of art manner, and the urban-suburban space takes shape accordingly. To quote Dr Robert Freestone- “Developments and proposals for each Australian city are considered from the perspectives of city plans, civic centers, public spaces, campus design, parks and street and boulevard design. Canberra has a separate chapter that explores the brief and ideas that preceded the design competition. The Griffin plan is then compared to other entries and evaluated in the context of time.”(Designing Australia’s cities: Culture, Commerce and the City Beautiful ) Read More