Discover Benelux | Top Architects in the Netherlands | Creating Quality of Life
Markthal Rotterdam.
‘It only works if everything is right’ TEXT: MICHIEL STOL | PHOTOS: MVDG ARCHITECTEN
When it comes to interior design for the retail industry, the space has to have high aesthetic value as well as be functional and supportive for the products and the brand. “If a display attracts more attention than the product it is showing, you have the wrong design,” says Mark van der Geest, owner of MVDG Interior Architects. Designing interiors for retail shops requires specific knowledge and insight, explains Van der Geest. “The interior is part of a concept the client has created. So you have to look at it from a different angle. At first, it is less about the architectonic side of it, such as lighting or what 36 | Issue 59 | November 2018
materials to use. It is more about how the client wants to persuade its customers to buy the products and how the interior can help with that.” Before the actual designing phase starts, Van der Geest spends a lot of time with clients defining the store’s concept and its targeted audience: Who is the customer, what is needed to persuade them to buy a product? “There are 15 factors that play a role in the success of a brand, such as social and technological factors. My expertise touches on four or five of those factors. I take them all into account to come to a good design that has a purpose and fits with the other factors.” With his team of
freelance experts, he then starts working on the actual designs. Van der Geest acquired his expertise during his extensive career in retail interior design and concept development, first for ten years at Bijenkorf (one of the oldest and best known high-end department stores in the Netherlands) and followed by another ten years at Merkx + Girod architects in Amsterdam. “I was educated in retail interior design, so it was a natural step to take on this roll and develop my skills and expertise. I have learned so much over the years, both from the projects I worked on, as well as the many trips I have made abroad to see all kinds