Delight is in the details

The outward shape of a shopping centre may arouse admiration and even rapture, but the interior determines its marketing success to a much greater extent. It must be designed to avoid chaos being the price for aesthetics, the price for convenience being the inefficient use of available space and the price for splendour being bewildered and overwhelmed customers

Zuzanna Wiak

Patrycja Wojciechowska, Parkridge Retail Poland’s director for design and planning, believes that: “All the elements of a shopping centre’s interior decoration should be cohesive. That is why we spare no effort to ensure that the retail outlets in our centres are of a uniform design. We display the centre’s logo on small-scale architectural elements.” Parkridge Retail Poland is currently developing its shopping centres and commercial parks under the Focus Parks trademark. Ms Wojciechowska’s colleague Agnieszka Drucis, the company’s marketing and PR director, adds that the style and colour scheme of a Focus Mall is replicated on other decorative elements: “Let me suggest you take a closer look at the way our centres’ halls are painted and how the interior traffic lines are designed.

Delayed orders

As always, attention to detail has its cost. It takes an investment of around EUR 1,300 to fit out 1 sqm of a shopping passage, and an extra EUR 100 if the project is given high standard fittings. This amount constitutes on average 5-7 pct of an entire investment. So is it worthwhile to invest in common fittings? Maciej Zaborowski, the managing director of GSZ Group, stresses that: “Effective interior projects can give a shopping centre an enviable position on the market. In Warsaw this is most clearly evident in the case of Arkadia, which is situated in a good location and, in addition, was designed to make shopping a comfortable activity. The Blue City centre can serve as an opposite example. The developer is having to cope with retail space leasing problems, and the centre is also confusing for customers in terms of finding their way around.”

The managers of the recently opened Dariusz Miłek Cuprum Arena shopping centre in Lubin were quick to notice the mistake they had made. Michał Tur, Cuprum Arena’s marketing manager, admits that: “The initial design did not envisage so-called resting points such as benches, while not enough plants had been included in the design, the outcome of which is the somewhat industrial appearance of the centre. A survey of customers concluded that such small-scale architecture was lacking and this led to the gradual adaptation of the centre’s interior design to accommodate customers’ expectations. Plants are being brought direct from Holland, as well as benches.” Michał Tur adds that customers also asked for a fountain to be installed, but that would have required too great an interference in the building’s structure.

Deliberate modesty

Water makes you relax, engendering a mood of reflection and a pleasant atmosphere. But is a fountain always necessary to create a friendly interior? Not really. In the Neinver shopping centres designed by Paolo Lobo of Italy you will see no evidence of such extravagance. Rafał Elżanowski, Neinver Polska’s investment director, puts it this way: “The interior decoration in our centres is characteristic of the Factory brand, which is why all our facilities throughout Europe are similar. The architectural forms are simple – the purpose of which is, first and foremost, not to distract the customer’s attention with superfluous decorative elements. Our centres our designed without large cafés, restaurants or typical resting points, such as fountains. This is the logical approach for satisfying the demands of those customers who want to shop in such boutiques. They constitute a specific group who have arrived specifically to visit such outlets and spend as little time as possible in purchasing their goods. The centre’s tenants have no desire to distract a customer’s attention from seeing and choosing products.

The ultimate purpose

In Maciej Zaborowski’s opinion: “A cursory glance might make you think that shopping centre 
interiors have been designed for customers whose sole purpose is to spend Sunday afternoons just lazing around in comfort. These centres have 
become very like churches, where an increasingly secular society likes to spend some time-off. That is why customers have to be offered everything to keep them shopping as long as possible. 
However, only the interior traffic lines seem to have been designed with the needs of customers 
uppermost in mind.” Mr Zaborowski adds that developers want to design interiors to house the greatest number of leasable retail units. The 
passages along which customers have to move to reach specific outlets are planned in advance in every centre. Nothing is designed by accident. Every large shopping chain has its own logistics, 
elaborated so as to persuade customers to do the 
largest amount of shopping.”

Keeping things well lit

Agnieszka Drucis of Parkridge Retail Poland is convinced that: “To a customer, a friendly shopping centre is one which, apart from an attractive selection of outlets, has wide pedestrian passageways and a large number of skylights.” For its design of Cuprum Arena, Studio ADS also gave a great deal of thought to how to provide the greatest amount of natural light. The mall contains one of Europe’s largest glass linear structures – a stepped glass façade of around 2,500 sqm in size. However, the agreeable mood generated within the building is not only through there being such a large amount of light. Art also has a similar part to play. Parkridge Retail Poland chose the works of well-known painter, graphic artist and poster designer Rafał Olbiński, for this purpose. Transparencies (i.e. positive prints transferred to transparent material) of Olbiński’s work were displayed reflecting the main features worthy of attention in each shopping centre. Patrycja Wojciechowska of Parkridge Retail Poland describes the intention in this way: “We display his works in various places within the malls but always in the form of large-surface prints. For instance, in Rybnik they are placed on a wall facing the old malt-house building; in Bydgoszcz, on a sculpture hung in one of the atriums; while in Piotrków Trybunalski, they are placed around the inside of the building’s two skylight turrets.”

Stop all the clocks

A clock should really be kept out of sight in a shopping centre, to prevent customers from being reminded of the passing of time. Rafal Elżanowski, Neinver Polska’s investment director adds that: “There is no place for excessively tall decorative elements in shopping centres. Stands, kiosks and plants should never obscure shop windows, signs and pedestrian passages.” High-class products have to be purchased to ensure a centre’s interior can resist the passing of time. If plants have to be used, they should only be those resistant to extreme temperature and round-the-clock illumination. Floors must be of high-quality, abrasion resistant wood. Furniture must also be able to cope with damage, and be heavier than standard and immobile. It is also important that the artificial lighting should be similar to natural light. Systems are already available which regulate illumination intensity as darkness falls. All these factors will help to attract and hold onto an elite list of tenants and therefore contribute to the centre’s success. ν