Week 4

Week 4:

Lecture: People and Lifestyles:

We were asked to consider a ‘storyboard’ scenario with fictional characters, scenes and sets based on reality and facts which is what our group has been doing already in our charettes.

Tutorial: Design Charette

Today we discussed several scenarios for the characters of our envisioned future Paddington. Four of the more prominent points were that;

1)       People would work more efficiently for less time – leaving more time to enjoy extra-curricular activities such as shopping.

2)       The actual shopping experience would be different to that of today due to the implementation of emerging technologies such as interactive walls.

3)       Shopping Centres would have multiple roles that would include retail, recreation and entertainment on a larger scale than that of today.

4)       We will see a greater emphasis of automation of current systems. Robot workers will undertake tasks that we do not wish to do.

TESCO HOMEPLUS:
 

Tesco Homeplus: In principle, quite a good idea, however the convenience of having all the stores products up in one space would make more sense. Otherwise you might be reminded to get the steaks in the subway, but what about the milk? – Next station over? – Inconvenient. The space required to make this work would be similar to an actual grocery store anyway!

The answer could be this...




Adidas has developed a hybrid virtual and physical retail experience. The shopper has the benefit of accessing hundreds of the brands products even if they are not in stock. A simple scan of your smart device completes the transaction and the product is sent direct from the manufacturer to the customer.

 
Along this scenario, the retail experience becomes a more interactive experience and goes some way to clawing back some ground on the other current option - impersonal on-line shopping.

Although people [generalisation] find on-line shopping a convenient and novel way to purchase goods, there is an important element missing; social interaction. Unless things change and we see a swing back to the social shopping experience we are in danger of becoming anti-social beings.

Indeterminacy:

I believe that buildings may become de-designed in order to accommodate a flexible indeterminate existence, Large open spaces designed for multiple life-cycles and uses may become the most useful solution. This is concerning for the profession of architecture whose traditional role was that of designing bespoke spaces for specific purposes. We almost have to be able to think harder to design less?