[...] London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who yesterday announced that almost all ticket offices on the London Underground transport network would close by 2015 [...]. There are 268 ticket offices on the network in total, and around 260 are set to close [...] Ecommerce giant Amazon is reportedly in talks with Transport for London to use the closed ticket offices as “drop off” points for deliveries. — techcrunch.com

The round tables at Starbucks were the result of asking the question how do we want people to feel before considering what do we want them to do...Form follows feeling. — Medium

The Miami Design District recently revealed the design plan for its new mixed-use building commissioned to award-winning architect Sou Fujimoto.

Set to be constructed in Miami's largely pedestrian Palm Court, the new building will be a vibrant addition to the neigborhood. — bustler.net

Ikea is to sell solar panels at its British stores for the first time in an attempt to tap growth in the heavily subsidised green energy market.

The world's biggest furniture retailer, best known for cheap basics such as its Billy bookcases and Ektorp sofas, plans to offer solar panel packages at all of its 17 British stores within the next 10 months. — theguardian.com

The design and space organization simplifies the visual experience for passersby and visitors even more than current designs. It also provides unprecedented visibility into the store from nearly 315 degrees, including from the sides as mall visitors arrive from other points in the mall. In the photo above, the underside of the overhanding roof is visible, covered with stainless steel panels. The back wall of the store is medium-gray stone framing the back-lit graphic displays. — ifoapplestore.com

Sears Holdings, the 120-year old retailer (which now includes Kmart), plans to start converting its struggling and defunct department stores into data centers, Data Center Knowledge reported today. A new unit of the company, Ubiquity Critical Environments, will lead the charge.

Thanks to Walmart, specialty shops, an economic downturn and—the sweet irony—online shopping, department stores are heading toward extinction, and Sears is feeling the pain particularly hard. — motherboard.vice.com

She has become a global brand so desirable that her buildings in China are now being pirated – before they are even finished. So what territory is left to conquer?

The answer might be found by peering through the windows of an innocuous looking building on Clerkenwell Road in east London, which opened this week as the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery, part of Clerkenwell Design Week. — guardian.co.uk

The New South China Mall was once promoted as the world's biggest mall, but it's now pretty much deserted. — edition.cnn.com

Staples, the world’s largest office products company and second largest e-commerce company, today became the first major U.S. retailer to announce the availability of 3D printers. The Cube® 3D Printer from 3D Systems, a leading global provider of 3D content-to-print solutions, is immediately available on Staples.com for $1299.99 and will be available in a limited number of Staples stores by the end of June. — businesswire.com

Sources close to the project said Foster + Partners... is helping Apple on the retail store design brief. — marketingmagazine.co.uk

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple's request last week for trademarks on the minimalist design and layout of its retail outlets, the office's records show.

The description of the trademarks includes "a clear glass storefront surrounded by a paneled facade" and, within the store, an "oblong table with stools...set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall." — reuters.com