According to the thesaurus, comfortable means: practical, functional, ergonomic and easy-to-use; whereas pleasant (as in giving pleasure) can be replaced by the words: kind, good, nice, cosy, idyllic, entertaining, as well as... comfortable. A little bit of linguistic gymnastics is necessary at the outset of this month’s editorial before we can move on to more concrete matters, because it turns out that they are the buzzwords in the latest issue of our magazine.
This month we take a look at the food courts in shopping centres (‘Recipe for a Pleasure Zone’) – and what do we discover? The owners of the temples of retail are making every effort to create areas comfortable and pleasant enough to attract and then keep customers inside for longer. Cities are creating woonerfs as a way to enhance the quality of life of their residents (‘Streets Fit for Living In’). And probably none of the investors and architects who took part in our architectural competition had any doubts that you need to design and build facilities that are functional, ergonomic, comfortable, pleasant... and profitable (‘Architects of the Revolution)? Winning distinctions and achieving fame is one thing, but you also need to catch the eye of investors. However, a building that is designed functionally and ergonomically is not just more pleasant – it is also more popular with tenants, which translates directly into the more mundane issues of financial inflows and rates of return. And where can you go for at least a bit of pleasure? I know a few people in our line of business who will be finding this in Munich at the beginning of October, because the Oktoberfest and Expo Real are a practical, pleasing but also an entertaining combination.
