It is our pleasure to announce, that this year graduate of ASK program, Kama Kośka, achieved big success in International Architectural Thesis Award organized by Re-Thinking Architecture. Her project of Rebook Concept Store in Janki near Warsaw took second prize in Public/Institutional Category. Supervisor of this work was arch. Jan Słyk, PhD.
Internet is changing the retail experience, and how we shop. The role of the storefront is changing. It may not be devoted to physical sale anymore. The currency of value would be the experience. Designing these shopping experiences is about creating opportunities to facilitate impulse purchases. According to paradox of choice: too much choice results in confusion and indecision. The perceived value of product must come from the user experience.
Reebok Concept Store is an attempt to create a sport equipment retail place combined with product fabrication area and space for active entertainment (to test the products on the site). To promote activities happening in the store, the building is situated in the ‘passive’ type of space – one of the biggest shopping mall parking outside Warsaw.
People living in the city orientate with the use of the Cartesian space. People living among the nature have spatial intuition and orientation in relation to objects and localities and perceive the space as a web of paths (Nomads). Organic shape of the building was designed to imitate sport tracks but also to stimulate the users’ sense of orientation.
The web of paths designed on the building site, organic floor plans, outside and inside slopes, all this interventions create very dynamic space which is willing to be faced by the users.
Walls inside the building act as rock, different resolution of the wall material creates great environment for sportsmen.
The architecture of the store is created in voxel-based design environment. Voxel is a space unit to which different materials and resolution can be assigned. This environment combined with fabrication technology enables the creation of shapes which were difficult to build before. The building construction process is similar to 3d printing, which already is widely used for product fabrication.
Sport equipment exhibition is designed in the wall. This intervention incorporates user experience with purchasing process. Clients are invited to explore the store’s space and find new equipment ‘hidden’ on many levels.
Store’s structure works as a diagnostic station where clients’ movements are scanned and diagnosed. This information is later needed for producing customized, personalized fit sport equipment in the store. After purchasing the client has a great opportunity to test just bought product.
In this thesis Computer Aided Design, Voxel Space, Additive Fabrication (from the scale of product to the scale of building), Computer Aided Manufacturing, product customization technology, body scan, finally the specification of fabrication process in architectural scale were applied in design process to achieve a final result – the Concept Store dedicated to sport.
The result indicates that this way of performing the design process enables more discussions on high-level design issues, supports more effective design operations and creates new field for architectural expression. This thesis suggests that designers can benefit from the use of objects in voxel-based design environments.
