EXCHANGE Issue No. 2 the Future of Different Sectors Design Across Perspectives On
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EXCHANGE Issue No. 2 Perspectives on the future of design across different sectors Contributors laura fernie, Senior two retail spaces Commercial Asset in the capital. cara bamford, a Manager at TfL, Partner at Make, is is looking after the emma hindes, General EXCHANGE working with clients delivery of TfL’s White Manager of Westfield, on a range of mixed use City arches project. has been involved in and retail destinations Westfield London’s from Make’s Sydney katy ghahremani is a Phase 2 expansion. and London studios. Director at Make, and oversees internation- ibrahim ibrahim, Issue No. 2 erin booth, Head al architecture and Managing Director of of Beauty and Retail interior design projects Portland Design, has Investments at spanning many sectors, some interesting and Founders Factory, including retail. provocative views on is tasked with finding the future of retail. the next generation rachele godridge, of retail brands. General Manager jeff kindleysides, Consumer & Retail founder of Checkland tor burrows, Director Operations at Vicinity Kindleysides, works of Placemaking at Centres in Sydney, has with leading retail Grosvenor, is working been involved in the brands, including on the evolution of retail sector for her adidas and AE Studio. Grosvenor’s place- entire career. making strategy in the alex mcculloch, West End, which dates peter greaves, a Director of CACI, back to the 1720s. Partner at Make’s works with retailers London studio, works and landlords to use james chase is a Make closely with the Future data to inform future Partner working with Spaces Foundation, retail strategies. Vicinity Centres in an in-house think tank Sydney to see how that explores how katerina mercury, a flagship centre can the built environment Central London Senior diversify its offering. can positively impact Asset Manager at on communities. The Crown Estate, isabela chick, is responsible for Managing Director grigor grigorov, helping modernise of Founders Factory a Partner in Make’s the West End. Retail, runs an accel- London studio, is erator business finding project architect on alfred ng is Studio the next generation Make’s portfolio of Manager for Make’s of retail brands. projects for Harrods. Hong Kong studio and In 2018 he presented conducted the vox pop albert chu, National with Ralph Ardill at interviews at The Mills, Director at TH Studio REVO on the future finding out first-hand Shanghai, is a retail of shopping centres. why people choose expert working with to shop there. developers to deliver jake hardy, founder mixed use schemes of Number Six, is a across China and London-based entre- Hong Kong. preneur who runs “This edition combines Welcome When we launched Exchange in 2018, the aim interviews and essays was to explore the trends and challenges the built environment industry is facing. We wanted from leading developers to lean into each sector and look at the overlaps, the opportunities, the geographic differences and and consultants, as well similarities, sparking a dialogue. This is our second edition, and the focus is retail. as ideas and analyses We’ve brought together some brilliant thinkers, retailers, clients and consultants, and in these from our own team.” pages you’ll find real food for thought. As with Issue No. 1, which focused on workplace, this edition combines interviews and essays from leading developers and consultants, including Vicinity and Westfield, as well as ideas and analyses from our own team. The retail sector is in tremendous flux, with major threats brought to bear from e-commerce, as well as the changing nature of how and why we shop. But of course with every threat comes opportunity. We hope this document will inspire lessons and ideas around the world. Ken Shuttleworth Founding Director, Make Architects EXCHANGE 4 Contents 5 6 14 20 78 84 88 22 28 36 96 104 106 42 48 50 112 120 126 56 62 68 132 162 170 MAKE ROUNDTABLE Cara Bamford, James Chase, Katy Ghahremani, What does the future hold for offline retail, and how does the evolution of the retail experience influence how we design those Peter Greaves, Grigor Grigorov, Jack Sallabank, spaces? Jack Sallabank chaired a roundtable with architects from Bill Webb, Sarah Worth Make’s London and Sydney studios to explore the future of retail. EXCHANGE 8 Make roundtable 9 Jack Sallabank: Are we seeing the death one of the first luxury shops to of offline retail? go online and in doing so became a massive online fashion retailer. katy ghahremani: No. I think it’s Now it’s gone back to physical a misnomer to think about offline retail and has taken a townhouse versus online shopping, because even in 5 Carlos Place. It has practically people who shop online still have a no stock, and it’s not about selling relationship with the physical store. to you; it’s about creating a very We are going through an evolution, curated service. If you want to buy and offline retail is no longer just anything, they still order it online. a place where transactions happen. The retailers that understand Instead it’s a place to build brands the evolution of retail in the way and consumer communities. I believe Matches has are the ones that that offline retail has never been will remain relevant. more important. cara bamford: It’s about turning peter greaves: It’s an evolution, the shopping experience into an but it’s a forced evolution. The exhibition experience. I still want story of retail used to be about to feel the fabric on certain things. how convenience is king. Now there I want Debenhams to feel curated are better, more convenient ways to as opposed to a miserable, dour james chase: Tip to top, Australia want a really personal experience. get stuff, so you need to be offered shop floor with things hung up is three times the length of the At one extreme you have craft- more to actually go somewhere. unattractively. UK, and the separation between makers selling via DM on Instagram. communities is much greater than They don’t even have a website; you katy: Matches is an interesting Jack: What’s the story in Australia? in the UK. Also, there isn’t the have to message them and have a story. It started off as a shop in infrastructure in place, such as a conversation with the designer. Notting Hill Gate, and it became strong postal service, to distribute We want all of it; it’s not an either/or. goods and allow the likes of Amazon to build a business upon. As much Jack: As designers, how do you respond as people want to be able to access to this change? things quickly, retailers in Australia can’t fulfil that via online, so instead bill webb: It liberates you. In they challenge themselves and my opinion, the reason why many improve their shopping experience. retailers fail is they have so much stuff. What happens if they get rid peter: It’s interesting that Amazon of all of that? You let light in, you hasn’t worked in Australia based on can have gardens, you can get people that one thing, which is not being to stay for longer. If you can actually able to deliver everywhere fast. get rid of the product, you can create That’s all that online really offers – much nicer spaces. speed and convenience, which is only a small part of the retail experience. katy: For us architects, it’s about making sure that spaces are katy: I think we want to benefit designed to be as flexible as possible, from a range of retail experiences. because things are changing at such We want fast, frictionless shopping a pace that the best thing we can for some things, but with others we do from a sustainable development EXCHANGE 10 Make roundtable 11 katy: I think a lot of the retail a coffee shop and a workspace, what closures represent stuff no one type of space is it? We shouldn’t really wants anymore, so why are be defining them. This is especially we mourning it? The fact that true for high streets. To allow high they’re going isn’t a bad thing. streets to evolve, we need to loosen In commuter towns we’re seeing co- up planning uses. Maybe we should working spaces moving into empty have a use class which is actually retail spaces. This is a response about community and is not a to people being sick of commuting, specific use. and therefore we’re seeing the rise of the ‘metro-burb’. We need to bill: It’s worrying that we’ve let so think creatively about the uses of much of our civic identity on the high these spaces and make sure they’re street as a nation fall into retail. place-specific. It used to be the place of the church or the army or these big institutions, james: When we talk to our clients, and now we have a void which needs they want to bring experience back to be addressed. to a place because they want to bring people to the area and create a civic Jack: One of the challenges for retailers identity. The key is bringing people and landlords is understanding point of view is make sure we have Jack: How do we go about reimagining back to spend time together, and consumer trends. What do you see as enough head height and the column the UK high street? ultimately selling goods will come the trends they need to be aware of? grid is right. secondary to that. peter: Before the 1940s, high bill: The way our approach to james: At bigger centres, individual streets were mixes of civic uses, katy: We need to loosen up our hobbies has changed.