From the previous draft of writings and collages about retail space and experience, I am toeing a line.  

One side of the line there are retailers.  To them I say this:  People need you and you need them.  No need to fear the digital, here is a possible way forward.  I see some strategies that work and some things worth trying.  I suggest finding ways of removing all metaphor between life and style.  Just as you have created a seamless brand experience, you can also create a seamless connection between the clothing and the suggested ways of living.  Low density, low rent places outside of international cities have the space and the need for this kind of pairing.  You can start to build brand experience through events which would lead into future sales.  Also, in an uncertain future regarding commodities and sales, creating memories and experiences puts you in a market which has no resource limit.  Because a lived moment cannot be shared, passed down or resold, there is a strong incentive for you to build that side of your brand now. 

On the other side there are the architects.  To them I say this:  Retail and commercial environments are my daily experience of public life.  And I can't imagine I am alone in that reality.  I have lived many places and done a good amount of travel.  It seems that this commercial/retail environment is an American way of living--of being public.  Is there something to be gained from fully embracing this?  Is there a point that architects resist resisting and try to see what can be learned from retail?  Isn't retail fully invested connecting space, place, and digital all as one indistinguishable whole, creating a 21st C experience?  Isn't retail keenly invested in telling a compelling story through space/form/graphics?  Doesn't it want to create a memorable experience?

If we are to spend so much time as a public in such an environment, is there any way to leverage it more fully to the public's advantage?  More communal?  More meaningful?  In the face of a largely isolated and segregated way of living, where could I potentially meet people unexpectedly with whom I have a shared interest?  In a car driven life, the chance meeting in the urban experience happens in the small clusters of commercial space.  The car and the suburban home are largely architecture of isolation.  The only counter point that I could see for a low density environment would be in the church and the mall.  And I don't go to church.

plaza, mall, and church

Recently I went to Cooper Hewitt Museum with my partner and had a really cool and new experience that was largely separate from the art and design the museum actually contained. As part of our ticket purchase, we were given what I describe as a wand. We were told that with the wand, we would be... View full entry

If someone were to ask me where we should look to see an example of 21C space, I would point them to the MoMA.  But the focus would not be on the art.I would call their attention to the retail at the entry level, on the first floor, on the top floor, across the street, and the street vendors just... View full entry

Immediacy is a concept that some stores execute very well and other stores can learn from.  It is a more specific understanding of "mixed use."  Taking the implied/suggested lifestyle activities of a brand, it concentrates relevant experiences into one spatial location. STARBUCKSStarbucks has... View full entry

With online commerce, the need for store locations has become weakened.  Now more than ever, it is critical that stores create a tactile, visceral experience of the brand. The near future will help personalize the in-store experience with sales and advertisements based on personal shopping and... View full entry

Shopping can literally happen anywhere.  While SkyMall may have been a bit too much too soon, it is not uncommon now for people to spend time shopping between the opening and headlining acts at a concert.  Retail stores cannot continue with business as usual, only focusing on a maximum capacity... View full entry

If someone were to ask me where we should look to see an example of 21C space, I would point them to the MoMA.  But the focus would not be on the art.I would call their attention to the retail at the entry level, on the first floor, on the top floor, across the street, and the street vendors just... View full entry

Immediacy is a concept that some stores execute very well and other stores can learn from.  It is a more specific understanding of "mixed use."  Taking the implied/suggested lifestyle activities of a brand, it concentrates relevant experiences into one spatial location.Starbucks has the most... View full entry

With online commerce, the need for store locations has become weakened.  Now more than ever, it is critical that stores create a tactile, visceral experience of the brand. The near future will help personalize the in-store experience with sales and advertisements based on personal shopping and... View full entry

Shopping can literally happen anywhere.  While SkyMall may have been a bit too much too soon, it is not uncommon now for people to spend time shopping between the opening and headlining acts at a concert.  Retail stores cannot continue with business as usual, only focusing on a maximum capacity... View full entry

Sorry, another diversion.  This week and next week I will be using this blog to write down and record a set of ideas about retail, reflecting on where it is and imagining (what will most likely be very) near future projections about where it might go.  As I've been thinking about retail space, I... View full entry

It has been almost two years since my last blog post.  The hard-drives still hold the data from my degree project, but I still have not connected them to a new computer.   Thankfully my final images are still intact and easy to access.  I will make a post with my final images in a later post... View full entry

So this begins the second part of my last year of school.  Degree Project was definitely a journey. I was very fortunate to be working with my professor Paul J Donnelly.  We were really a great match and the balance we kept each other in, though at times frustrating, worked out well... View full entry

So this is the knock out punch for Design Thinking.I will start and finish posting about Design Research next week.Then I will begin working on how the two can be in a more direct conversation. In this post we have iterations to finished style on related spreads.Links below for the full sets.The... View full entry

With about a two and a half weeks left in the course before we arch-students stopped doing classes and fall head long into studio fancyfootwork-flashmob-midnighthustle time, the main points to hit in the development of the Design Research were site and program.  For Design Thinking, there... View full entry

From the previous post to this one, only one week had passed.  I can’t remember what all happened that semester, but I am pretty sure no studio work was done that week.  I mean, I’m basing that statement on the “last modified” date of my archived files&hellip... View full entry

I started to build upon the diagrams and images shown in the previous post.  I wanted to look more closely at what the difference was between the Occupy protests in NYC and STL.  I only knew that one had much press coverage and many people and the other had little to no press coverage... View full entry

After the tepid presentation,  I accepted what my professor had been telling me for three weeks --embrace the political.  Embrace the direction of my inquiry.  Allow myself to critique. It became clear that I had repressed thoughts in my head because over the next few days, my... View full entry

The last post had two different points in time at once.   It was also missing the presentation from 09/18/12.                     I still insisted on proposing questions and ideas about a temporal public existence.  In part, I am pulling... View full entry

​           Companion post tomorrow.   All for now.   Take care, Christopher View full entry

So, I feel that at this point I should take a small pause and give more context to what has happened so far.  From the last post, we see a lot of terms and architectural references.  Basically, the thoughts circling around me question whether or not the public should have a more active... View full entry

After the initial beginning, I felt ideas boiling inside but had no words or drawings to make.  So I made objects and collages instead.  All I had going on consciously circled around having some sort of solid element, a platform or stage and a transient element. Aside: The same weekend... View full entry

After our instructors informed us of the importance found in our design research--how it would either hang from our necks like an albatross (forever) or propel us out into the world of everything ever (for a day or two)--we were asked to choose three words and provide three images for each of... View full entry

As Hans-Ulrich Obrist would say, it's best to begin at the beginning.  So before I launch into a blog seeking to make sense of my final work and thoughts from school, I should provide some background. I grew up in Coral Springs... View full entry