Reboot Retail Architecture March 23, 2015 Brady William Ginn Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture Savannah College of Art and Design
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Reboot Retail Architecture March 23, 2015 Brady William Ginn Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture Savannah College of Art and Design Thesis to be submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fullfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture In the School of Architecture and Interior Design of the College of Design/Architecture/Art and Planning Committee Chair: John Hancock Research Chair: Michael McInturf ABSTRACT A dramatic shift is taking place in the retail industry: the monumental rise of e-commerce has decreased the validity of and need for brick-and- mortar retail stores. As online shopping continues to proliferate, how can retail architecture survive? This thesis will explore retail typology, the digital age of shopping, and “brandscaping,” through a cycle of research, literature, and precedent analysis. Applicable principles will be exercised in the design of a DC Comics flagship retail store, while also utilizing comic book methodology. Focus will be placed on analysis of the current state of the shopping type, the needs of the next generation of shoppers, the relationship between technology and retail stores, a study of the client’s brand and culture, and the relationship between comic books and architecture. The retail store will be reinvented as a place for something greater than fulfilling a need; it will evolve into a space that emphasizes the development of a personal relationship between the brand and the customer. Pieces of shopping architecture have the potential to become zones of action and play where a user can become a superhero, harness their powers, and learn to fly. Retail architecture must evolve into an experience-based destination, creating an emotional relationship with the user through an engaging manifestation of the brand’s narrative. ii iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Robert Glassner For encouraging my creativity through crude cardboard sculpture and setting me on the path to become an architect To William Ginn, Joy Ginn, Jennifer Ginn, Benjamin Ginn, and Kristen Ginn For unconditional love and support To LaRaine Montgomery, Matthew Dudzik, Timothy Woods, Daniel Brown, Algar Thagne, Michael Zaretsky, and John Hancock For challenging me and helping me find my voice To Rebekah Sigfrids, Kathryn Wiseman, and Marta Smurzynska For helping me realize my own talent To My Friends, of whom there are far too many to name For laughs, critiques, and thousands of beautifully bonkers stories over the last seven years vi I stumbled upon a site that CAPTIONS The other night I was photos of average people WITH QUOTES trying to cure a bout of FROM IN-DEPTH PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH THE SUBJECT. insomnia with a healthy MEOW. dose of Internet. “I want to be an artist’ I WAS IMMEDIATELY STRUCK “WHAT KIND OF ART DO YOU BY SOMETHING. WANT TO MAKE?” PREFACE “I WANT TO MAKE DIFFERENT 1 Stanton, Brandon. Facebook. May During my third year at the Savannah College of Art and Design, VERSIONS OF MYSELF.” 15, 2013. Accessed December 28, under the tutelage of LaRaine Montgomery I took a studio course in 2014. https://www.facebook.com/ humansofnewyork/photos/a.1021070 retail design. I collaborated with Gabriella Rose Reagan, fashion design 73196735.4429.10209991653078 MY WORK IS A STRANGE AND WONDERFUL 4/462990480441724/?type=1&rele AMALGAM OF THE MOST BONKERS student and former recurring Sesame Street cast member. Using her vant_count=1. MOMENTS OF MY LIFE... dark and twisted senior collection, I designed her flagship retail store as an allusion to a Gothic cathedral. A place where the innovative and unusual could be worshiped and fashion would take on the qualities of a god. The retail store redefined as a place of worship. Design concepts, structural elements, and analogues of religious iconography woven together to create something melancholic, strange, and beautiful. When I worked for Victoria’s Secret I was given the opportunity to assist in the development of new visual concepts for the brand’s flagship stores. As much as I loved the work, it felt hollow. The stores lacked experience. The brand is powerful, Victoria’s Secret is the only name in women’s underwear, but there was no heart or incentive to drive customers into the store. Why go to the mall when the product is a click away? Late in my college career I was given the advice to show more of my personality in my portfolio. I didn’t know how to implement that critique until a late night bout of insomnia and a visit to my favorite time sink, Humans of New York. The blog juxtaposes beautiful portraits of ordinary subjects against answers to intimate interview questions. In one a child was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said “an artist.” The photographer followed up with “What kind of art do you want to make?” The child said, “I want to make different versions of myself.“1 My art has never been so eloquently explained. I thumbed through my portfolio and saw these vignettes of my life experiences projected onto the architecture I created. Having been a fan of comic books since my first issue of Young Justice in the seventh grade, and having sketched superhero versions of myself and my friends for even longer than that, the way to best represent my story was through a comic sequence. Comics have a unique ability to create a cohesive composition while dividing the story into these specific, isolated experiences. My thesis is an epitome of the strange, hilarious moments that made me love comic books, retail design, architecture, and high-concept spaces. The project is a beautifully weird amalgam of the bonkers things that brought me to this place as a designer and a person. THE BIZARRE AND BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS THAT MAKE ME WHO I AM SUBCONSCIOUSLY INTEGRATE THEMSELVES INTO THE WORK, DEFINING MY UNIQUE STYLE. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Abstract vi Acknowledgments viii Preface 5 BACKGROUND 9 LITERATURE REVIEW 11 “The Next Big Thing” 13 Gen Z 15 The Future of Retail 17 The Store of the Future 19 New Super Identity 20 Brandscaping 21 PRECEDENT ANALYSIS 23 Burberry World Live 25 Tesla Design Center Stores 27 MoMA Ps1 Young Architects’ Competition 29 The Story 31 City Museum 33 BACKGROUND SUMMARY 35 PROPOSITION 37 CLIENT AND CULTURE 39 Comic Book Culture 41 The History Of DC Comics 43 COMIC BOOKS AND ARCHITECTURE 45 Introduction 47 Archigram 49 Instant City 51 Mocca 53 This is Not a Lovesong 55 Dresden Military History Museum 57 Conclusion 59 SITE ANALYSIS 65 DESIGN AND EXPERIENCE NARRATIVE 67 Design Introduction 69 Thesis Into Design 71 Program Experience Walk-Through 75 Conclusion 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 Text Bibliography 80 Image Bibliography 2 Reboot Retail Architecture 4 Background 6 “Smart brands, however, don’t consider [the growth of internet shopping] 2 Keane-Cowell, Simon. “Selling Spaces: Otto Riewoldt’s Brandscaping explains the way in which a brand can and new directions in retail design.” Architon- to be the death-knell of the physical point of sale – the store – but rather ic. http://www.architonic.com/ntsht/sell- must elicit an emotional response in a branded space in order to develop ing-spaces-new-directions-in-retail-de- as a challenge to reimagine its meaning. If everything’s cheaper on the sign/7000706 (accessed February 27, a personal relationship with the customer. Internet, how do you make real-time, real-place shops meaningful? How 2014). do you turn online brand fans back into analogue consumers?”2 For over Conceptual precedents for this thesis include London’s Burberry World a decade, online shopping has experienced an unparalleled growth. Live flagship store, the classic brand’s attempt to integrate the its E-commerce has many advantages over traditional retail spaces. Online physical and online identities into a digital/real world hybrid environment. retailers offer a much wider selection. Giants like Amazon have much Tesla’s retail stores use a sequenced narrative path through the space, lower listing fees, storage costs, and smaller staff than physical stores. allowing customers to control the design of their cars. MoMA PS1’s This allows prices to stay low among online shops. Because websites Young Architects Competition annually reinvents the spatial organization have no defined hours of operation, customers have the ability to shop and exterior expression of the museum’s courtyard space. The Story’s anytime anywhere. This versatility makes competition extremely difficult perpetually changing theme creates a new experience for users during for physical stores. Retail architecture needs to be reinvented to survive. every visit. The City Museum completely integrates architecture and The retail store can’t just be a place to buy anymore; it must become a hub experience into a volume that is as much sculpture as it is building. of experiences. A store transforms into a branded landscape, engaging a customer’s senses and developing a personal relationship with them. The physical point of sale must be a place of authenticity, working with the brand, the user, and technology to create extraordinary experiential moments. The proposal is supported by a number of pieces of literature. The Harvard Design School’s Guide to Shopping by Chuiha Judy Chung, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, and Sze Tsung Leong is a series of essays that track the evolution of the marketplace and the spaces created for the purpose of spending. Fitch’s study on the shopping habits of millennials, “GenZ,” explains the affect of the next generation on retail design. ARUP’s The Future of Retail explores the potential of technology integration into the new retail environment. In The Store of the Future: The New Role of the Store in a Multichannel Environment, Deloittle lays out the opportunities to engage the user experientially on different levels.