Shopping is anguably the terminal form of public activity. Through a battery of increasingly predatory forms, shopping has inflitrated - even replaced - almost every aspect of urban life. Town centres, suburbs, streets, and now airport, trainstation, museums, hospitals, schools, internet, and the military are shaped by the mechanisms and spaces of shopping.
The voracity by which shopping pursues the public has in effect, made it one of the principal, if only- modes by whic we experience the city.’’ by Rem Koohaals.
Shopping has so dramatically refashioned the city. Perhaps the beginning of the twenty-first century will be remembered as the point where the urban could no longer be understood without shopping.
If we accept the saying by Koohaals to be true, then repacking is making more sense to the society in urban scale. A redistribusion of warehouse/ high street shops / public market is assembled at the joints of Cambridge street (a small lane come from the Usher Hall) with castle terrace and extended toward King’s Stable Road. One small pieces of Architecture consists of a seies of ‘poster’ of the Umbrella --Arcadia.
This retailing area is consumed to belongs to Arcadia, because Arcadia is one of the biggest retailer in UK, selling fashion clothes for both men and women and aiming different age cosumer groups. It is more reasonable and logic to design with a ownership .
For Retailer:
This project is going to benifit them a mix comsuming group, which could largely lift the overall sale; Also, by seperating the storage /service area (staff accessed only) from the public and integrate them into a really big basement, which could give a huge convenience and efficience to the unbrella to operating and organizing.
For the Public:
More importantly, by redistributing warehouse, hight street shops and a public market connecting with the sunday farmer market beside, everyone can shop here, right in the city centre, without making effort on longtime drive, wasting time and resouces. Also land is saved relevantly. Based on its seperation of different retailing ways, accessible public ground floor is ready for the public to walk, see , play and experience a different sense of retailing in the city.
