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The Purchase Palace

PROJECT TEAM:

Alexander Giarlis
Brgs Lenz
Chloe Tayali

STATUS:

Competition

YEAR:

2018
Longlisted competition entry for the Crown Estate and the AJ Future of Retail competition.

Our proposal for an out-of-town retail destination typology of the future begins with the observation that the architecture of retail has become a lubricant between product and consumer. A systematised application of industry principles that aim to increase exposure of the former to the latter by reducing the distance between them while increasing the time they spend with each other in controlled and accommodating environments. While the logical conclusion of this movement is being manifested in the bizarreness of Disney-like themed indoors malls with ceilings painted like skies, simultaneously there are certain desires being expressed for the meaningful inhabitation of the space in which to sell and shop that clearly evoke aspects of social, public and outdoors daily life. With the rise of e-commerce these desires have become even more relevant. As this new e-relationship between shopper and commodity is developing, instead of attempting to accommodate it, or worse, compete with it, the physical space of retail is faced with the unmissable opportunity to reinvent itself into a new type of public space.

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Whether physical or digital, retail relies on accessibility and proximity. The Purchase Palace is designed from and around routes of accessibility. It is a grandchild of Highway Services typologies based on a comprehensive en-route offer but grown into an almost autarchic condition of a new destination.
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The structure is merged with primary vehicular, railway or other routes that bring commodities and consumers together as a dense infrastructural node of vertically rearranged front and back of house retail.
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It is reasonable to anticipate that in the near future entirely purchase motivated trips to brick and mortar retail destinations will have become a rarity. It is perhaps the act of shopping as a social activity, a pastime or at best as the need to physically experience merchandise prior to purchasing that will generate such trips. The Purchase Palace is an expression of how a physical retail destination can offer under these circumstances a purpose for a visit by means of spatial qualities and arrangement to encourage pleasure, indulgence and the celebration of what may become a predominantly ritualistic relationship with physical market environments.
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