Vision Studios

VISION Studio.

Unit 6: Live Project Centre Point Retail Space

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Areeya Irene Jamieson FDA Interior Design Year 2

Unit 6

Live Project

Centre Point Retail Space

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CONTENTS The Introduction ... 08 The Data Maps ... 16 The Investigation... 24 The Experiments... 36 The Display... 44 The Space ... 50 The Model ... 58 The Design ... 64

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The Introduction

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This portfolio will explore the modernity within the social organization of a physical retail environment. There will be an insight into the scale of design, from product curation and display to spatial planning. Looking into existing retail conditions in order to make critical and deliberate decisions for the new space that will be designed. We have been given the assignment to propose business for the new retail space at the Centre Point building. An investigation into the notion of value, analysis of consumption and desire, will assist with the outcome of the interior design. An exploration of the processes of transactions and exchange, an evaluation of different typologies of display and exhibition, and the definition of key references for spatial communication and installation.

Retail spaces can often be described as ‘experience economy’, due to the wide variety of displays and services they offer. From installations, experimental showrooms, to pop up shops and urban flagships. Despite the takeover of e-commerce in the retail world, these spaces have become destinations, landmarks and community epicentres. The experience of going into a store is a fully immersive embodiment of browsing, selecting and purchasing of commodities. It has become one of the defining activities in modern urban life. Similar to going to a museum, the experience of retail is also a curated display of artefacts. The line between art and fashion has been blurred, hence visitations of galleries and stores have grown equally. The idea of shopping is a fantasy, but with growing economies, and globalization, more and more people are able to purchase directly from the high street. It has become a necessity to satisfy physical needs, a ritual in which identities are formed.

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The center of London:

The Centrepoint building is the perceived centre of London. Surrounded by some of the busiest retail shopping streets in Europe, such as Oxford Street, and Tottenham Court Road.

FITZROVIA

SOHO

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VIA

TOTTENHAM COURT RD.

COVENT GARDEN

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“The Centrepoint Development by our Clients Almacantar is located at one of the busiest intersections in central London; Soho, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia. An international destination with over 300,000 visitors per day makes the Centrepoint retail space windows for the world to see. The Grade I Listed Tower has recently undergone an extensive restoration and conversion from offices to luxury residential apartments. The ground level retail spaces were once derelict and the bridge link used as a shelter for the homeless, they have now been converted into a luxury development for global consumerism, set around a new ‘public’ piazza.”

The site we were given is the one high lighted in blue. This odd ‘L’ shaped structure will become the focus the further investigations within this portfolio.

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The Data Maps

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Sunglasses stores in the area.

Straying away from the more popular businesses in the area such as restaurants, bars, cafes, and others in the hospitality sector, we wanted to focus more on retail, and one of the businesses that were in a small number are sunglasses stores. This site mapping shows the number of sunglasses stores and opticians in the vicinity of the retail location.

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Sun mapping of light radius.

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Light and sunshine through any space are very important for the ambience and atmosphere. We wanted to record how the sun rises and sets around our space so in our design we could use that for light filtration and shadows.

The mapping shows an average time that the sun sets and rises between the months of October to December, and it’s location around the building.

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08:09 AM

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PM 13

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CENTREPOINT

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16:00 PM

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Density Map

This map represents the flow of foot traffic around the area of central London, and around the Centre Point building. The darker the blue on the heat map means the more crowded the area is. As shown, the majority of the congestion appears to be directed from or going towards Oxford street.

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Tribes

From observation over the period of 3 months, we noticed that there are four main ‘tribes‘ that exist in the area. Office Workers who come from outside the city centre, Suits, who work near or around the area, Creatives, those who are mainly around Soho, and lastly Tourists, who come from all over, with the aim to sightsee or shop. From this we narrowed down the demographic we wanted to focus on. Since the residential sector of Centre Point is more high-end, we wanted to cater to that demographic. The middle to upper-class shoppers that would appreciate and be able to purchase the experience and product we are presenting.

Contrary to the main demographic, the surrounding area of the retail site has council housing, high street stores, and a mixture of different “class levels“.

The conclusion from our mapping results will we presented within our design choices, and bespoke elements we chose to exhibit.

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The Investigation

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Sunglasses

Over 60% of the world’s population wears prescription glasses, and over 80% wears glasses or sunglasses as a fashion statement. This makes the object a widely sought after retail item.

From our site mapping, we found that the area surrounding Centre Point is highly populated with restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. From this, we came to the conclusion that there isn’t another need for any more culinary stores. There is a small number of sunglasses stores and opticians in the area. With the idea supply and demand in mind, we wanted to create a destination sunglasses store. The concept of sunglasses also developed through how the Centre Point retail space has a significantly large wall of a window, around three sides of the site.

This allows a lot of light to filter through space. Going off of that sunglasses link to the idea of light filtration and filters on the perception of a space.

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Museums

The line between retail and museum displays have been blurred. It has become increasingly popular to create a museum atmosphere in a retail store because it encourages movement within the store, and it elevates the product’s perception of its quality and demographics.

Below is a Venn diagram comparing the similar qualities between displays within retail and museums.

Displays Retail

Museums

To sell​

To showcase​

To showcase​artifacts

Commercial​

Curated Items​

Usually Historical

Mass produced​ Politics of placement​ Subliminal Arrangement

Specifically Design​ Art​ Bespoke​ One of a kind​ Layout that encourages movement around the items​ Valuable items are harder to get to

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Materiality Main building’s Facade

Main building’s Facade

Court yard floor joint

Main building’s Facade

Main building’s ceiling coverings

Main building’s outer wall tiles

The mirrors and line of sunglasses

Retail space outer wall

Highlights of the strong shapes and materials used around the existing site.

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There are noticeable links and similarities between the construction of the sunglasses and the structure of the building. You can notice the strong geometric lines and shapes, industrial finishings, symmetry, and the use of large windows to filter light, throughout the site. This can be due to the Brutalist design approach the original architect took, combined with its Art-deco styles. Influenced by these design choices we wanted to correlate the materials we used in our new design addition with the existing building to complement, and not take away from the amazing architecture. Below are some of the materials we chose to use in our space.

Flooring in the Centrepoint residence

Window coverings and ceiling

Retail space court yard floor

Coarse granite flooring

Industrial matte concreet flooring

Blue reflective mirrored perspex

Pink reflective mirrored perspex

Mirror

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Rebecca Horn German visual artist, who is best known for her installation art, film directing, and her body modifications. She inspired movement for us through her work.

James Turrell

American artist primarily concerned with Light and Space. He inspired us through is use of lighting elements within his installations.

Jeppe Hein

An artist based in Berlin and Copenhagen. His interactive sculptures and installations combine elements of humour with the 1970s traditions of minimalism and conceptual art. His use of reflective objects is what attracted us to his art.

Fred Eversley

American sculpture who creates sculptures from cast resin and other materials, a medium that makes possible many different effects, ranging from opacity to complete transparency. His pieces made us look in to the illusions of objects, and how they appear to be.

Eley Kishimoto

British fashion and design company primarily known for its print design. They inspired us to use visual elements of the space as our design inspirations. Such as the strong geometric structures of the building.

Larry Bell

Anish Kapoor

British sculptor. Born in Bombay, later studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. He is concerned with the idea that sculptures, the object is highly manipulative. He is interested in the idea of “non-objects�. We got the idea of mirrors and perspectives from his work.

Artist Influence

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American sculpture and contemporary artist who has created a series of huge boxes using translucent and coloured glass, which are designed to evoke the morning fog that rolls in from the coast of California. His work informed us on the use of glass.

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Yayoi Kusama

From rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and reinvented her style.

Well-known for her repeating dot patterns, her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation. The main idea of a space being infinite was inspired by Kusama.

Richard Wilson

An English sculptor, and installation artist. He is internationally celebrated for his interventions in architectural space which draw heavily for their inspiration from the worlds of engineering and construction. The idea of disruption and displacement can be experienced through his installations.

Zaha Hadid

An Iraqi-British architect who was described by The Guardian of London as the "Queen of the curve",who "liberated architectural geometry, giving it a whole new expressive identity".

Daniel Steegmann MangranĂŠ

A Spanish visual artists who play creates installations through division of space using chains. This influences the audiences movement throughout a space. He response to the architecture of the space in the design of his work.

Eliasson Olafur

Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic-Danish artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. His work transports you to a new space via the lighting and colored glass.

Ann Veronica Janssens

A contemporary visual artist who works primarily in light.

She explores the subject of spatio-temporal experience and the limits of perception through precise installation and minimal sculpture

These are the artists that influenced the idea of playing with reflective materials, light, shadows and perspectives. Sometimes the perception of a space can be more revealing than what the environment, in reality, looks like.

The Space Shifters Exhibition, which the majority of the mentioned artists exhibited their work at was one of our main influences.

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Existing Retail Space

There is a simple sense of spatial communication which allows for easy movement and direct transactions within the business. This is noticeable in the plan on the right.

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The current layout of an existing glasses store. This design is one of the more common layouts used and seen within the world of sunglasses stores and opticians. A simple straight forward and symmetrical flow in the floor plan.

Vision Express, Oxford St.

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The Experiments

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The initial concept design layout of the retail space.

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Lighting and reflections materials tests.

Card Paper cutouts with fliter lenses.

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Foam board extrusions.

Metalic foil over light source.

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Mirror paper, distorted vision.

Going off of our data maps, we experimented with the use of lighting filters, such as coloured lenses and mirrors. We also used strong contrasting geometric shapes that would create interesting shadows once introduced to light. This was the beginning of our idea development that later brought us the idea of our Kinetic wall.

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Hand model made of pipecleaners and paper straws.

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We looked into juxtaposing shapes such as the curvature of these doorways. Since the infrastructure of the building is very bold and angular. Later we discovered that we should be inspired by those shapes, hence the kinetic wall. A wall that moves (opens and closes) kinetically, filtering through the sunlight at different times of the day. This also links to our test with shadows, as the triangular shapes would cast a beautiful shadow inside the store.

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The Display

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Physical model.

Digital Model.

Models of the individual structure of the kinetic wall. The models, similar to the sun through the space.

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Physical model.

Digital Model.

These poles are designed to be made of different magnifications of mirrors. The layout of them is supposed to mimic that of an exhibition display in a museum. People can walk through and experience the store and the product through multiple perspectives.

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Since the space is so large in scale, coming up with a retail device that would successfully display and showcase the items we are selling without it getting lost in the scale of the environment, is very important. Below are the design solutions that both highlight the object, and entices consumers’ interests. There are two main display areas within the store, the reflective triangular poles, and staggered wall shelves. The poles have to minimize and magnifying mirrors surrounding them to distort views and zoom. The slots where the sunglasses are stowed is bespoke to each pair. This gives a sense of luxury to the display, as it was made for the sole purpose of holding the glasses. The shelves are directly influenced by our lighting test of cutout materials. The shape of the display plays with the shadow that filters through the large windows opposite them. Again there are custom built ridges for the sunglasses to sit snugly in.

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The Space

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The empty floorplan of the retail space.

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The final plans.

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Outer Axo

Inner Axo

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Mezzanine

Ground Floor

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The Model

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This 1:20 scale model was a tool that helped us realise our ideas and final designs. This portfolio was an investigation into the notion of value, and how the perception of an object can massively elevate it’s worth. This is where design comes in and takes over retail marketing. The way we display our products can either entice of steer away potential customers. The idea of consumption due to desire is a major factor in retail, the ‘want’ over ‘need’. The way we designed the space was to be an experience. The typology of our display and layout can be compared to that of exhibitions. The way the two main displays are placed at opposite ends of the store encourages movement throughout the space. There are two main displays but three main sections, the triangular pole displays, the staggered shelves, and the custom/bespoke area upstairs.

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The Design

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As you enter the store through frosted doors, from the piazza parallel to the residential building, you will see the eye-catching ever moving, kinetic wall as the window display. This is our main design feature to the site. A strong window display sets up the impression for what lies inside the store. Our display represents the movement and reflection of light through the large windows. There is a reason the glass on the door is frosted but the whole outer wall isn’t. this is because it gives a sense of what it is like before you wear glasses and after. This links to our product, sunglasses. There are constantly interesting shadows cast on the opposite wall to the windows which inturns act as art.

The neon pink metallic till sits in the centre of the store promoting direct transactions, as this is a physical store, in an age where ecommerce has taken over. Across the back wall, the logo “VISION� is draped across in bold backlit neon signs.

To the left of the store is where the staggered shelves are located.

They are placed over a large mirror and under an angular dome. This also casts lights and shadows in the space and on the product. This area is interactive, the customer is encouraged to try on the glasses and inspect their own reflections in the mirrors.

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To the right, is where the true museum-like exhibit experience begin. the floor to ceiling mirrored poles. Staggering in a simple pattern, these reflective display vessel house the sunglasses in their openings. Each of the three sides has a different magnification of the mirror. This allows the customer to view themselves within different closeness. As you walk through you should feel a sense of a labyrinth.

Up the blue reflective metallic stairs is where the customization area is. This section of the store has the simplest layout and design. This is why the floors are graphics, they bring in elements of the main Centrepoint building to the space even more. Placed across the middle of the mezzanine, a gold reflective table is there for the sole purpose of creating bespoke sunglasses.

The overall experience of our retail environment should be a luxury store, for sunglasses. The main selling point would be the kinetic wall. The way it opens and closes becomes almost an event to witness. This means that our store could become a success because we have created a destination place for a specific product.

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Areeya Irene Jamieson FDA Interior Design Year 2

Unit 6

Live Project

Centre Point Retail Space

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Chelsea College of Arts FdA Interior Design Year Two

January 2019

Edited & Designed by Irene Jamieson

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