The gentle art of persuasion
When Paul Ayre goes to work he thinks of only one thing: your cash and how to get it. His daily routine revolves around getting you to empty your pockets in the most efficient way possible. Is he a professional pickpocket? A card shark? A snake-oil salesman? The truth is, as far as your bank balance goes, he is potentially much more dangerous. Paul Ayre designs shopping centers.
At least that's the simple version. For Ayre, shopping centers are, well, a bit passé. "We are not working on any conventional shopping centers," he quickly points out. "We are exploring the notion of retail parks and trying to muddy the boundaries between ... where shopping centers stop and bulk purchasing starts."
The "we" in this equation is Broadway Malyan architects. Ayre is director of the Warsaw office and, even though the company is relatively new to Poland, their wealth of experience in other countries is already making itself felt here. Its Warsaw office opened in 2001 but the company has only been really turning out designs for two years now. It is currently working on retail, leisure and workplace projects for international clients, and is the firm behind the design of Silver Screen cinemas and Inter IKEA's Domoteka concept at Targówek Park Handlowy in Warsaw's northeast.
"We try to encourage our clients to push out the conventional boundaries and the definition of what the space is for," says Ayre. "This doesn't necessarily lead to expensive design; it's just a question of understanding the psyche of people who want to shop and encouraging you to spend."
'Vile activity'
Although it may be very easy to encourage some members of the human race to flash the cash, Ayre has his work cut out for him when it comes to this reporter. I freely admit to him, with some glee, that I detest shopping centers and all that they represent. However, it appears he has mastered the art of thinking like the enemy.
"I detest shopping; it is a vile activity that should only be undertaken when absolutely necessary, but the assumption here is that it is a proper leisure activity," he enthuses. Touché, but all the same, shopping and leisure are not two words many people often put in the same sentence.
"There is very little that I can do to persuade you to go into a shopping center," he explains. "What I would do is to work with a client to find something to encourage you to go to something that constitutes a shopping activity. There is an understanding of different types of leisure shopping: it's people watching, it's hanging out in the food court, it's drifting from shop to shop, but we are used to other markets were people go from shop to shop to do comparative shopping, which results in a purchase. [This is the] purchase of non-essential goods, it's not systematic shopping, it's genuine relaxation.
"The idea of developing the market is to develop the idea of comparative shopping, [namely] a destination for shoppers that offers a whole variety of different shops of a similar ilk [which] increases the chance of there being a purchase."
Choosing to spend
They have choice, ergo they spend. But for some people shopping is a religion, and when Ayre gets into the psychology of it, it does all start to sound a little spiritual.
"Good design comes in presenting you with an environment that encourages you to walk that little bit further for another opportunity, and to see what's around the corner," he says. "Avoid dead ends, which dissuade people because they are not going anywhere, and avoid shortcuts, which cut out a part of the offer, and make the layout as readable as possible. They still need to be able to navigate their way, but not in a soulless, consistently similar place. People associate with decoration; they associate with events, the quality of light, the floor plan, they subconsciously develop a mental picture of where that particular shop was, so it's creating a conducive environment that [firstly] encourages a shopkeeper to take a location, and once they are in that location, that they are going to have consistently high footfall, [which gives] them the maximum opportunity to pull people in.
Increasingly, shopping centers, or retail parks, are providing as wide an offer as possible to attract customers, with one major shopping destination rumoured to be offering everything from cinemas and creches to entertainment of a slightly more, ahem, adult nature. But are places such as these over-egging the pudding in a bid to give an all-in-one day out, and does anybody really want to spend an entire day in a shopping center, no matter how persuasive the design?
"The grand plan of a day out destination is still a tricky one," admits Ayre. "We have put a few cinemas into centers here as part of their natural development to complete their offer and, yes, it has increased footfall, but it's very hard to measure if it has increased turnover and whether there is that multi-task visit that people go and do their weekly shopping, go off for a meal and then go watch a film."
Macro to micro
There can be no doubt that shopping design has come a long way, and the malls of today are a far cry from the beige and plasterboard malls of 30 years ago. "From the macro down to the micro, the problem is repetition and this is why we are strenuously trying to encourage developers to push the boundaries." The devil, it seems, is in the details, and Ayre rattles off a list of things that run through your mind when shopping, other than what brand of washing powder your wife usually uses. "[It's about] ease of use, quality of finish. Can you park close to it, how long do you have to sit in a queue, can you get your trolley easily onto the first floor, all of these things."
With people like Ayre at the drawing board, it seems our pockets will never be safe again.
At least that's the simple version. For Ayre, shopping centers are, well, a bit passé. "We are not working on any conventional shopping centers," he quickly points out. "We are exploring the notion of retail parks and trying to muddy the boundaries between ... where shopping centers stop and bulk purchasing starts."
The "we" in this equation is Broadway Malyan architects. Ayre is director of the Warsaw office and, even though the company is relatively new to Poland, their wealth of experience in other countries is already making itself felt here. Its Warsaw office opened in 2001 but the company has only been really turning out designs for two years now. It is currently working on retail, leisure and workplace projects for international clients, and is the firm behind the design of Silver Screen cinemas and Inter IKEA's Domoteka concept at Targówek Park Handlowy in Warsaw's northeast.
"We try to encourage our clients to push out the conventional boundaries and the definition of what the space is for," says Ayre. "This doesn't necessarily lead to expensive design; it's just a question of understanding the psyche of people who want to shop and encouraging you to spend."
'Vile activity'
Although it may be very easy to encourage some members of the human race to flash the cash, Ayre has his work cut out for him when it comes to this reporter. I freely admit to him, with some glee, that I detest shopping centers and all that they represent. However, it appears he has mastered the art of thinking like the enemy.
"I detest shopping; it is a vile activity that should only be undertaken when absolutely necessary, but the assumption here is that it is a proper leisure activity," he enthuses. Touché, but all the same, shopping and leisure are not two words many people often put in the same sentence.
"There is very little that I can do to persuade you to go into a shopping center," he explains. "What I would do is to work with a client to find something to encourage you to go to something that constitutes a shopping activity. There is an understanding of different types of leisure shopping: it's people watching, it's hanging out in the food court, it's drifting from shop to shop, but we are used to other markets were people go from shop to shop to do comparative shopping, which results in a purchase. [This is the] purchase of non-essential goods, it's not systematic shopping, it's genuine relaxation.
"The idea of developing the market is to develop the idea of comparative shopping, [namely] a destination for shoppers that offers a whole variety of different shops of a similar ilk [which] increases the chance of there being a purchase."
Choosing to spend
They have choice, ergo they spend. But for some people shopping is a religion, and when Ayre gets into the psychology of it, it does all start to sound a little spiritual.
"Good design comes in presenting you with an environment that encourages you to walk that little bit further for another opportunity, and to see what's around the corner," he says. "Avoid dead ends, which dissuade people because they are not going anywhere, and avoid shortcuts, which cut out a part of the offer, and make the layout as readable as possible. They still need to be able to navigate their way, but not in a soulless, consistently similar place. People associate with decoration; they associate with events, the quality of light, the floor plan, they subconsciously develop a mental picture of where that particular shop was, so it's creating a conducive environment that [firstly] encourages a shopkeeper to take a location, and once they are in that location, that they are going to have consistently high footfall, [which gives] them the maximum opportunity to pull people in.
Increasingly, shopping centers, or retail parks, are providing as wide an offer as possible to attract customers, with one major shopping destination rumoured to be offering everything from cinemas and creches to entertainment of a slightly more, ahem, adult nature. But are places such as these over-egging the pudding in a bid to give an all-in-one day out, and does anybody really want to spend an entire day in a shopping center, no matter how persuasive the design?
"The grand plan of a day out destination is still a tricky one," admits Ayre. "We have put a few cinemas into centers here as part of their natural development to complete their offer and, yes, it has increased footfall, but it's very hard to measure if it has increased turnover and whether there is that multi-task visit that people go and do their weekly shopping, go off for a meal and then go watch a film."
Macro to micro
There can be no doubt that shopping design has come a long way, and the malls of today are a far cry from the beige and plasterboard malls of 30 years ago. "From the macro down to the micro, the problem is repetition and this is why we are strenuously trying to encourage developers to push the boundaries." The devil, it seems, is in the details, and Ayre rattles off a list of things that run through your mind when shopping, other than what brand of washing powder your wife usually uses. "[It's about] ease of use, quality of finish. Can you park close to it, how long do you have to sit in a queue, can you get your trolley easily onto the first floor, all of these things."
With people like Ayre at the drawing board, it seems our pockets will never be safe again.
