Rethinking Retail for the Circular Economy
Our global environment is changing, and so too is the way in which we engage with and consume goods and services. Urben is researching how architecture, urban design and planning can inform the creation of successful and sustainable retail environments.
When rethinking the future of retail for a circular economy, the following themes are relevant:
Urban logistics – how changes in distribution networks for online retail might reshape our cities.
When people shop online, how can we create places they want to visit in person?
How can we enable retailers and property owners to waste less, and create more?
When floor area is at a premium, how can we use space more efficiently?
What could it look like if the life-cycle of a product all occurred within the same place?
Could shopping centres & key retail streets like Regent Street, London act as a test bed for innovative and sustainable retail?
How could planning policies be adapted to support how we want to use land in the future?
How can we use every space, private and public, as part of the production of goods, knowledge and community ties?
Image: Adidas and Parley for the Oceans created sneakers from discarded fishing nets and plastic debris - https://bit.ly/2KNfIfM.
A New Way of Shopping?
As natural resources become more scarce, might we begin to shopping for our own waste? Could retail shops include space to return & re-purpose previously used goods? Marks and Spencer have tried Schwopping, but could we see department stores with goods made from residual materials donated by suppliers, like the Kvadrat fabric desserts at the 2017 Milan Design Week?
Image: Super Supermarket by students from the Design School Kolding in Denmark, from Alice Morby’s article in Dezeen.
Tailored Experiences
Although some large retailers offer personal shopping services, or click and collect facilities, the next step could be to use software to create customised shopping experiences across a number of retail stores. Customers could enter the type and style of products they are looking for, or select specific items to try, then use a mobile application to create a tailored map guiding them to and within shops. Coordination with retailers could mean clothes are ready to try one when customers arrive, or they can locate a specific items within very large and sometimes overwhelming department stores.
Image: menswear department at Selfridges by Alex Cochrane Architects
Logistics
Fortnum and Mason has been operating from its current location in Piccadilly since 1707, and is well known for its Christmas Hampers which are delivered to all corners of the globe. In 2012 significant upgrades to the store costing £24m commenced, these included rationalising the space for storage and distribution of their famous hampers. By relocating some of the hampers to an off site storage facility and improving logistics, additional retail floor space in the form of a second food hall was able to be created at lower ground level. Coordinated logistics offer the potential for retailers to use their valuable real estate more efficiently.
Image: Fortnum & Mason
Coffee Power!
BioBean & Canary Wharf Group’s Clean Coffee Zone shows the collective potential of waste products from multiple businesses. Each week, waste coffee grounds from 900,000 customers are collected, then compacted, and processed into biochemicals and biofuels – diverting 300 tonnes of coffee from waste each year. What opportunities are there for waste capture an reuse in your local high street?
Image: www.bio-bean.com
Small Space, Big Value
In most buildings there are pockets of space that could be better utilised. Perhaps like the Uncle Bear Coffee shop in Cape Town that fits into a 7sqm space beneath the stairs in a building lobby, serving some of their customers through a window onto the street. Cobblers, tailors, jewellery makers and hairdressers are just some of the professionals that could make the most of smaller and more affordable spaces within a larger retail environment – creating a more dynamic atmosphere for customers, and helping bridge the gap between small and big business.
Image: A Common Ground Cafe, Tasmania, Australia
Space at my Place
AirBnB, Appear Here and other real estate market disruptors have created tools that increase individual property occupancy, but the next step is to coordinate multiple underutilised or disused spaces for an extrapolating effect. Having a tool where retailers and building owners can nominate ‘Space at My Place’ could enable a roof top farming company to harvest produce from multiple rooftops thereby creating a greater cumulative yield, or a clothing manufacturer to find atelier space to undertake different parts of their manufacturing process such as pattern making, cutting and dying in different buildings located within close walking distance.
Image: Levis, Regent Street, London
Embassy
Is there a building that could be turned over to a different foreign embassy each month, or operate as a space to be shared between countries? Artists, designers and makers from different countries could promote and sell traditional or hard to find products. In the evenings, workshops could be held to share knowledge on different materials, techniques, cuisines, or customs. The international houses created for the London Olympics are a good example of pop up embassies - showcasing the best their country has to offer.
Image: Flags displayed on Regent Street for the London 2012 Olympic Games, photograph by John Godley
24 Hour City
Oxford Street and other retail streets are essentially mono-use precincts that close in the evenings, why not convert deep shop frontages into cafes each evening? The lines between day and night could also be blurred to display a selection of best-selling products or provide an all-night click and collect facility at the front of larger department stores. Blackhorse Lane Ateliers in Walthamstow make denim clothing during the day but on weekend evenings host a pop up restaurant, creating an additional stream of revenue to cover building costs and introducing people to their products.
Image: Blackhorse Ateliers, Walthamstow - www.blackhorselane.com
Foot Power
Products like PaveGen offer capture piezoelectric energy from pedestrians, with great potential to offer sustainable energy production in high footfall locations like popular shopping streets.
Image: PaveGen trial, Bird Street, London
Eat Garbage
The food and beverage industry wastes vast amounts of edible food. In February 2017 Selfridges hosted wastED, a pop up restaurant by the Blue Hill Restaurant, New York. Food and drinks were sourced from waste products from local farmers, fishermen, suppliers and retailers. Other innovative businesses incorporating waste into their food and beverage offer include Trash Tiki and Rubies in the Rubble. Recently the excellent zero waste restaurant Silo London opened a few blocks away from our studio in Hackney Wick and is already getting rave reviews.
Image: Silo Restaurant - www.silolondon.com
Share Space and Time
Mix the zoning of buildings - vertically, horizontally and at different times of the day and night. Use deep shop fronts and underutilised upper floors to create space for small industry, or to transform into bars, cafes or click and collect spaces outside of traditional store opening hours. Shop window workshops could also help pedestrians engage with craft makers.
Image: Former Duke Street Emporium, Mayfair, London
