Designing a Concept Store: an Interdisciplinary Design Process

Abstract

The aim of this study is to introduce a design method for interior architectureeducation that would lead the students through the stages of the development oftheir projects. The design process is structured into five stages: conceptdevelopment; spatial development; technical drawings and physical model;detailing and three-dimensional representation; finalization. The second goal is toadopt an interdisciplinary approach to stimulate creative thinking. Therefore, inthis project interior architecture was related to several aspects of retailing andbranding during the design process of a concept store. The proposed method hasencouraged the formation of conceptual ideas in response to a defined designproblem. By integrating interior architectural problems with retailing concepts,students have learned to analyze, research, devise design ideas, and transfer ideasinto spatial compositions. This led to creative design solutions and diverse designapproaches. The organization of the semester into stages has guided the studentsto approach the design problem gradually and to explore design solutions parallelto their conceptual ideas. By the end of the semester, the students were able tocomprehend their progress along the design stages and to benefit from theinterdisciplinary approach. Findings may be beneficial for students, designeducators and designers interested in design process, interdisciplinarity processes,and designing retailing concept stores. The developed method may be used toprovide students with structured design process skills