trends Archives - RPA Group

Why apprenticeships are vital

With the Government’s ambitious plan to build 1.5 million new homes, there is no doubt that architects are going to play a significant part in enabling this to happen. Yet, in September 2024, the Government announced plans to reform England’s apprenticeship system, by introducing a new Growth and Skills Levy (the Levy), which is set to exclude funding for Level 7 architecture apprenticeships from the Levy. For many talented young individuals, qualifying as an architect in the UK is by no means easy or ‘affordable’. This means that apprenticeships are vital, to allow for the development of future skills that will help achieve the Government’s growth priorities, and is especially important for those from low-income backgrounds.

There are numerous advantages to taking on Apprenticeship students, one of which is that they simultaneously learn in an office environment and at university, which brings about a deeper understanding of an architectural practice, and instils valuable skills and experience before they even graduate. For smaller practices such as ours, apprenticeships allow us to offer an opportunity that we might not otherwise be able to support financially, which in turn encourages loyalty and commitment, that when imbued with self-motivation and development, benefits us too.

rpa:group is proud of our ongoing commitment to investing in new and young talent. Over the years, we have welcomed a number of interns and work experience students, who show a strong ability and a passion for architecture. While with us, they join our own teams to work on real projects, gaining a wealth of experience that would be hard to achieve elsewhere. Not only do they enhance their practical applications such as Revit/Drawing and how the industry works, but they also gain more psychological and no less important skills such as time management, communication and confidence building. Says Emma Sharp, HR Director at rpa:group, “During their placement with us, our interns and work experience students are able to put their skills and theories into practice and we support them in gaining invaluable, hands-on experience in the field of Architecture”.

Nicola Szczepaniak, who studied at the University of Portsmouth, enjoyed a one-year placement with us and said, “In my time here, I have gained more knowledge about the industry than I could ever have hoped for. The wide range of expertise amongst my colleagues has helped me develop many skills, from learning how to use the software more efficiently, to managing myself to complete various tasks professionally, on time and to a high standard.”

Michael Pearce, who studied at the University of Brighton shares that his time at the rpa:group was extremely important in terms of progression for his career. “I was urged to begin working on live projects from my second day, so that I could get a feel for these kinds of projects. In only a few months this allowed me to become an integral part of the team producing work to a high standard”, he said.

Phoebe Goodley also spent some time with us during her second year at university at Nottingham Trent and comments, “I’ve really enjoyed the experience as whole. The people are very kind and eager to offer their time and help me with any questions I have had. I’ve gained a real insight to help guide me towards what my future will entail.”

Mark Cherrett, Director of Architecture agrees. “Interns bring with them new perspectives, fresh ideas, and skill sets. We in turn benefit from the “injection” of fresh thinking and it can ultimately help us gain valuable future employees.”

When it comes to inspiring the next generation of architects, we also welcome students from local schools such as Bishop Wand School in Sunbury on Thames, St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School in Slough and the Salesian School in Chertsey. We also recently provided work experience for a group of year 10 students from Thomas Knyvett College, during which they were able to gain valuable insights and practical exposure in the workplace. Comments Mr McPherson, the school’s Raising Aspirations Coordinator, “During their time at your company, our students were mentored and nurtured by your dedicated team, providing them with a tremendous learning experience. The skills, knowledge, and confidence they have gained will undoubtedly prove instrumental in shaping their future aspirations.”

There is no doubt that inspiring and supporting the next generation of architects will also help to augment the success of the built future of this nation. Practices such as ours will do what we can to help, but it is also up to the government to help achieve this, by continuing to offer vital apprenticeships where needed.

future trends for retail in 2025 and beyond

What can we expect in terms of trends for 2025?

AI is going to be increasingly used to help enable retailers to hone the personalised experience that customers are progressively coming to expect. AI will move closer to completing the 360 degree experience in collaboration with the human face of the brand, as well as the seamless operational delivery.

2025’s shoppers also won’t just focus on price but how a product was sourced and made and they will be making their purchasing decisions based on this. Savvy retailers can turn their supply chain transparency into a competitive advantage, ensuring that their sourcing and sustainability practices are both virtuous and transparent.

“Vintage” will continue to gain popularity. No longer seen as something only utilised by those who are financially strained, it is now being embraced by the “middle classes”, with many retail giants launching their own resale platforms to cater for them. This also links to the increasingly visible conscientious and sustainable decision making of their customers.

The focus will be about ‘closing the circle’ on commerce from choice, selection, use and then recycling and it will be this 360 approach that defines the story and accedes to what customers expect now.

How can retailers prepare?

One of the most important assets to the success of retailers is their workforce. As AI and technology increasingly become tools to streamline the process, retail employees can develop into “experience orchestrators” that can utilise the available digital tools and data insights to deliver optimal experiences for customers.

A strong example of a retailer that is responding to the current and future expectations of its customers is our client Foot Locker. Their latest store concept revolutionises the retail experience, as it delivers an immersive, cultural and accessible premium shopping environment. Foot Locker has blended innovation with a passion for ‘sneaker culture’, leveraging customer insights to create an intuitive customer journey that leads to a path of discovery and delivers an exceptional customer experience.

The resulting stores boast a bold design, enhanced storytelling and an extensive product selection, with a strong commitment to sustainability, aided by technological advancements. Dedicated sections highlight the latest sneaker styles and a communal try-on area at the heart of the stores encourages customer interaction and promotes inclusivity of the sneaker culture. The Sneaker Hub is a dedicated area that enhances customer engagement and enriches the experience, by offering personalised services, omni-channel ordering options and unique FLX experiences.

Foot Locker’s iconic brand ambassadors, known as the Stripers, benefit from cutting-edge technological tools to manage the omni-channel inventory and streamline the in-store payment process, delivering optimal customer service.

The future of retail won’t just be about selling products, but about creating experiences and building trust with customers, which will result in a life-long and lucrative relationship for both.

What will 2021 and beyond hold for Architects?

A RIBA statement in October last year, revealed that over £3.5 billion of work was scrapped, with a further £7.5 billion on hold. There is no doubt that times are tough and as a result, competition is fierce, which is bringing about a “race to the bottom” on price. It is up to the industry to retain consistency and standards without compromising on quality, which occurs when costs and corners are cut.

For architects involved in retail, there are additional challenges due to the pandemic escalating the popularity for online shopping. The customer journey is changing, and we need to respond to this across both the retail and hospitality sectors, by looking into placemaking and taking a multi-faceted approach. The role of designers should be transforming experiences and collaborating in a more community-driven environment. There are going to be opportunities for architects as spaces need to be repurposed to adapt to the rapidly changing market and make them work differently.

Post pandemic, making people feel safe is going to be an important criteria in how space is utilised. Airport lounges for example will increase in numbers and popularity, as people feel safer in less crowded spaces and will be prepared to pay for this premium.

The pandemic has highlighted the opportunity to be innovative. We will start to see the regeneration of town centres, with vacant office and retail units making way for more placemaking facilities, with spaces for people to live, work and play.

What of rural areas? There is concern over the impact that Brexit has had on these communities, which have seen funding all but disappear. Rural estates need to be optimised to work a little harder, and to look into opportunities for change of use, such as including holiday accommodation, conference, leisure and lifestyle facilities.

And what of London and the larger cities? Interestingly, certain sectors respond more slowly to change, and what is referred to as “critical impact” can take up to three years. What we will start to see more of is changes to the profiles of buildings and some environmental changes, with more and more green spaces.

Overall, there is optimism about the residential sector. The large government debt will see the need for more jobs to be created, to generate taxes to help the economy recover. This will result in more employment in the construction industry. Advancements in construction methods will be explored more than ever, prioritising the use of off-site modern methods of construction (MMC) to deliver homes at a faster pace than traditional methods. Schools can also take advantage of this form of construction to speed up the shortfall.

However, off-site needs to think very carefully about the environment and sustainability, for what is basically moving boxes of air over vast distances. A way round this is to source things as locally as possible.

There is no doubt that sustainability is going to be increasingly important regardless of sector. With government targets set to achieve net zero carbon by 2050, advancements in technology can support this initiative by utilising collaborative tools such as BIM level 2, which gives an accurate picture of initial costs and whole life costs, encouraging clients to implement sustainable solutions upfront. BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) will become an increasingly important factor in architecture, being the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for master planning projects, infrastructure and buildings.

In conclusion, there are certainly going to be challenges, but also opportunities that arise from the shifting needs for buildings and spaces and how we will use them.

value and values…

The speed at which retail theory evolves has meant that the language and terms we use quickly become overused, obsolete and obfusticated. This means goodbye to ‘experiences’, ‘omnichannel’ and ‘phygital’ and our associations with them. This also reduces our ability to clearly define our brief and brand expectations. However, there is some enduring retail language worth investigating further, to gain a more insightful view of how we might approach this evolution.

Let’s consider ‘value / values’ as a persistent term, associated with retail…

A brand’s value could be said to refer to its customer’s relationship to the product or service and the financial worth attributed to it. As this is calculated on investment in marketing versus uplift, and is exclusive of cost and margin it is sufficient to measure Return on Investment. However it begs the question: Where is the longevity in the relationship? In this sense, Value is subjective and reliant wholly on a brand’s marketing skills to establish and maintain this. The ‘storytelling’ is unilateral, non-interactive and lacks true engagement. We experience this historically in the cosmetics industry, witnessing a pot of cold-cream, increasingly miniaturized, slathered with impenetrable pseudo-scientific jargon and afforded an exorbitant price tag related to perception, but not necessarily performance. Brand loyalty in this case is garnered only by the psychology of limitation and the need for ‘the latest’, not necessarily ‘the best’.

A brand’s Values however, when carefully considered and delivered, can significantly alter this dynamic. Values are inherent components of the human individual that govern selection in most things. They are subconscious and can be subjective, but share commonality that is regardless of gender, race and social background. If you are able to appeal to the fundamental psychological level of shared human values, empathy is generated, inclusivity prevails and lasting engagement is the result. Let’s not forget that humans process their relationships with brands, with the same part of the brain that they use to generate and evaluate friendships and social bonds. If brands and designers engage with and stimulate this process in the same way, through generating genuine empathy and understanding, a lasting retention of the brand experience is created. It results in authentic engagement, and trust – friendship in other words.

So, the ultimate question no doubt is how do designers appeal to these values? Reflecting on the time-poor nature of many consumers, the brand message needs to be focused both on individual relevance and wider cultural inclusion. Generosity, inclusivity and wellbeing are just three arenas in which we to battle for the hearts and minds of customers. We see brand generosity increasingly reflected in conversion of prime retail space, into complimentary service areas. L’Occitane and Lululemon, both on London’s premium Regent Street estate, dedicate their first floors to a focused extension of the main brand. Make no mistake, these are conceptually indulgent, committed, beautifully designed environments, devoid of direct sales and suggesting a wider world beyond the brand. Inclusivity and empathy with alternative social and cultural sectors generates that fundamental feel-good factor, especially alongside the feelings of indulgence during purchasing. US online retailer Zappos understands this and parallel with their retail website has a compelling, but most importantly, easily realised methodology of donating used goods. The customer simply prints and attaches their own label to a box of donations and drops them in the post. Domestic and foreign charities benefit, and allow selection of specific destinations. Physical ease and altruism are a winning formula

Wellbeing and social conscience continue to be enduringly historic on the high street. Arguably, Anita Roddick began to extol the virtues of brand Values with the first UK Body Shops in the late ‘seventies, infusing the brand with ethical sourcing and moral leadership. That trend extended to physical health over a decade ago with Innocent Smoothies 5 for 5 cafes, aiming to serve 5,000 people their 5-a-day for a fiver. We now see slowly increasing focus on mental wellbeing, with active wear brand Ivy Park consulting mental health charity MIND, to help positively empower women by increasing self-esteem. Similarly Boots is focusing on positive engagement with teens regarding their mental and physical wellbeing.

How do designers initiate this process with clients? It all leads back to Values. We need to remember that our clients are human too. Engagement and empathy with their brand aspirations is just as important as translating it for their customer. Understanding the traditional ‘goods-for-money’ transaction is dead. We need to embrace the fact that information is the new currency and investing in understanding any customer or client, taking time to listen and empathise is going to give us a return on experience.

essential retail design trends for 2019 that can’t be ignored

01. UNDERSTANDING THE FREQUENCY OF CHANGE

The speed at which things change visually with shopping websites and the constant advancements in technology, mean that customers have come to expect the same frequency of change in physical stores. This means that with the exception of grocery stores, (where customers want and expect familiarity), “Bricks and mortar” retailers need to allow for the customer journey and experience to be refreshed regularly. Because, when it comes to retail environments, flexibility drives engagement so there is a very real need to create environments that are easily adaptable. This means that the displays, the spaces around them and how these are used, is more important than ever.

02. ENCOMPASSING THE RETAILER HIERARCHY

It is during the design process that the need for flexibility first needs to be considered, and it is both the designers and the manufactures who need to fully understand what the retailer motivations are. There is essentially a hierarchy of needs to be taken into account. These are: delivering engagement, experience, flexibility, convenience and using quality materials that are fit for purpose, all of which when implemented collaboratively, will generate well designed, flexible and engaging retail environments.

03. CREATING BOTH EXPERIENTIAL AND SENSORY ENVIRONMENTS

Store design must support experiential and personal environments, that resonate with each consumer on an individual level. We are sensory creatures and sight, sound, touch, taste and smell when utilised synchronistically, deliver an engaging sensory experience that naturally leads to empathy. This in turn creates longevity of a relationship with a brand. In other words, stores need to be created to “sell from the inside, as well as the outside”.

04. ADAPTING TO SHRINKING SELLING SPACES

With many physical retailers continuing to pay premium rents, stores need to be designed to allow for the maximum use of space and purpose. With customer perspectives of physical space in stores also changing, selling space is morphing into experiential space – and the proportions of purely sales versus engagement space, needs to be adapted as such.

05. ENABLING THE CHANGING FUNCTIONALITY OF STORES

We are seeing stores becoming show-rooms and distribution centres, as well as conventional purchasing platforms. Offering fulfilment services such as “click and collect” is increasingly important and innovative physical retailers are merging online and offline experiences with the offer of convenience and ease of access. Here, customers can choose how much they wish to engage with the store. They can obtain product information directly from knowledgeable staff members face-to-face, (something online shopping cannot provide), or simply pick up a pre-ordered online purchase from a locker, while passing by.

06. TRANSITIONING THE ONLINE TO PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS

An increasing number of online retailers are opening physical stores. The function of these are not necessarily to buy product, but to provide an all important physical interaction with the brand, offer customers product trials and the opportunity to acquire product knowledge from informed brand representatives. This strengthens the customer relationship with the brand but for this to truly work, the design and fixtures need to bridge the gap between the online and physical stores – creating an easily identifiable synchronicity of themes and colours that are inherently recognisable within both the online and the physical stores.

07. EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER ENGAGEMENT

Technology used accurately, will continue to go a long way to deliver engagement. The use of touch screens, in-store tablets, virtual reality and devices such as smart mirrors, are all helping to deliver this. Mobile usage continues to grow and retailers are increasingly seeking to capture the attention of customers in-store by utilising tools such as iBeacon technology, to “push” information specific to them. Some brands are opting for portable tech, which continues to create opportunities for brand interaction, even when the customer is no longer in the store. Tommy Hilfiger, for example, is using smart tags in their clothing, that the customer chooses to activate. These then track how often and where the item is being worn, rewarding the wearer accordingly.

08. RECOGNISING THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE DESIGN

If anything, good service interactions are as critical as well-designed environments and also need to be “designed” to form part of the entire store experience. Training and support is becoming increasingly essential, to ensure that staff have the brand and product knowledge that allows them to be a key part of the delivery of the full sensory experience to shoppers.

the future of student accommodation

Overseas students currently represent 1 in 5 of the student body in the UK and have been prepared to pay more than £160 per week for accommodation where concierge services, private gyms, pools and cinemas are considered standard. Post BREXIT, has seen the numbers of foreign students falling, with 41,000 fewer wanting to study in the UK this year. Developers face the prospect of empty accommodation or slashing rental fees.

Future projects will have to adapt to a rapidly changing market. The challenges differ across the regions. Like other areas, London still suffers from fundamental levels of undersupply, with The London Plan suggesting a need for up-to 31,000 additional bedspaces by 2025. In the capital, development has been impacted significantly by high land costs and competition from other uses forcing developers to acquire secondary stock to recycle, rather than build from scratch.

rpa:group have long been involved in repurposing buildings such as redundant office blocks, as well as refurbishing existing student accommodation schemes in response to the demand for elevated student living. We are now involved in addressing a more affordable future where cluster flats of 2 bedrooms and more are proving popular, creating a communal living opportunity rather than isolated studio “boxes” and breakout spaces that reflect the needs of modern students, such as raised seating and work stations with multiple power supplies to support their technology.

As the Huffington Post recently pointed out, when they surveyed students’ expectations; “ students just want good wifi, a large bedroom and a double bed. Even a dishwasher and a tumble dryer could not crack the top 5 student accommodation desires let alone the desire to have a porter service, a gym and a nightclub on the ground floor. ”

Clearly, higher end design will still have a place in some parts of the country but going forward, a more streamlined version also needs to be considered.

If you would like our help with your next student accommodation project, please contact us on 01784 256 579 or send an email to s.cuff@therpagroup.com

Seismic changes can help secure retail’s future…

With so much happening, so quickly, in the world of retail we thought it was high time to delve deeper into the seismic changes affecting our industry, what they really mean for bricks and mortar retailers and how they can be leveraged to improve the future of retail, both for brands and customers. So, in October we held our first ‘Retail Indaba’, staged in Amsterdam, which met with a very positive response from some of the world’s leading retail brands.

Based on a Zulu word, literally describing a gathering for discussion, our ‘Indaba’ was designed to provide an opportunity for brand owners to put some tough questions to both rpa:group and its partners. To this end we selected an expert panel that included a retail psychologist, our own head of design James Breaks and a technology specialist, all under the watchfull eye of Matthew Valentine, the Editor of Retail Design World, who acted as Chairman.

Our overall aim for the Indaba was to stimulate discussion that could be taken back to boardrooms to inform strategies that would drive positive real life applications. It soon became clear that attendees were grappling with some big issues, ranging from ‘omnichannel’ to AI, and that for some these represented untold opportunities whilst for others they represented challenges that must be met head on. We were delighted not only with the willingness of attendees to share experiences and talk frankly about their business challenges, but also with the challenging questions this led to such as, ”How do we ACTUALLY make fundamental changes within big business?” I think we all agreed that change now typifies retail. In the last ten years the humble high street store, still the preferred destination for 85% of shoppers, has gone through more changes than in the past one hundred.

Now a union of online and bricks and mortar, the once simple store is now an immersive brand theatre, incorporating a glorious cocktail of showrooming, digital entertainment and ‘sharable’ experiences. To deal with this change however requires not just a new mind set from retailers but also a new skill set, one that goes far beyond the old transactional paradigm. There was a general feeling from attendees that the Indaba broke new ground for them and that working collaboratively with our expert panel provided the strategy and insight to help them come to terms with some of the tricky issues that can affect all aspects of their brand identity.

“Knowing the unknowns” has become a constituent part of 21st Century problem solving and our Indaba addressed plenty of unknowns presented by the audience. For many attendees, it signposted a way to investigate complex areas such as brand development, retail design and store function. Above all the event illustrated how a team of experts, all from different disciplines, can address retail challenges in real time, delivering insight and strategy into how brands can interface with their customers.

If you would like our help with your next project, please contact us on 01784 256 579 or send an email to s.cuff@therpagroup.com

six retail design trends to look out for in 2017

Here we share what we believe to be the top retail trends that will dominate in 2017.

James Breaks, Associate Director (Design) – rpa:group.

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Why omnichannel retail needs real places for real people

A good idea, but perhaps nothing new. The first 1960s boutiques in Carnaby Street or trendy hot spots on The Kings Road had stores with a loyal and local following, as well as being trendsetters on a national scale. Retailing history can offer numerous examples of stores acting as social hubs, including the famous bookshop Shakespeare & Co in Paris, home to expatriates like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso – all Parisians at the time.

With such illustrious antecedents, the NBHD concept has been a huge success and from Berlin to Beijing, customers have talked positively about feeling closer to the brand. It’s a nice antidote to the impersonal ‘one size fits all’ stores that have grown up with the desire or need to globalise. Retailers that embrace their locality, realise there must be a genuine and convincing fusion of retail and dedicated community space within their stores, even if this means extended opening hours or new patterns of retailing.

The philosophy of locality retailing demands that the retail environment reflect where it is, by creating an authentic sense of geographic place. Adidas has achieved this in spades through its store design, and the new Starbucks concept has done the same. Both realise that the necessary changes can be brought about through materials, colour palette, furniture and fixtures. But alongside a standout retail design, there also needs to be a virtual community, offering the chance to create and be part of a tribe with its own turf and personality. Savvier retailers are already taking giant strides by making individual store managers responsible for product mix to suit the demands of a particular locale and some are even making them responsible for internet and PR in their locality. It all comes down to making omnichannel work in a seamless way. If this can be done, then a truly exceptional customer experience can be delivered that acts locally but thinks nationally, or even globally. The digital environment should be as tonally and conceptually close to the physical store experience as possible. A great website and physical store should allow you to discuss, learn and make a choice effortlessly from a whole experience.

These are exciting times for retail. By embracing the available technology, high street brands will be able to take the very best from the biggest changes to commerce and society since the Industrial Revolution. Already an elite group of early adopters realises that the future of stores is real places for real people – let’s hope the rest catch on soon.

schools of the future

This is because in our highly connected world, students have ubiquitous access to quality, content and myriad ways to explore, study and interact. This rings true in both the digital world and the physical learning environment. As a result, we should see schools change exponentially over the next 20 years, to meet the challenges driving these educational changes today.

Herein lies an exciting opportunity to design spaces that better adapt to the latest ideas in teaching and learning, creating connected communities in which students feel they belong and want to spend their time.

World famous educationalist Loris Malguzzi has said, “There are three teachers, adults, other children and their physical environment,” a point that Salford University’s School of the Built Environment would certainly endorse, because a recent study conducted by the Salford team revealed that the built environment has a big impact on the learning progress, human performance and wellbeing. Technological advancements will also pioneer physical design change. The Future Classroom Lab for example, which involves big name independent IT providers, is already looking at how children should be taught in the connected world.

Schools will become increasingly ICT oriented as companies such as Oculus Rift, offer immersive 3D experiences for the classroom. Hardware and software that will put a child ‘inside’ an ancient Egyptian Tomb or amongst the ‘groundlings’ watching a Shakespeare play in the Globe theatre will become commonplace. Work tables will be super computer screens where a child can assemble from a kit of parts a Greek or Roman Temple, that will be projected on wall sized screens for others to view as it spins through 360 degrees. Sound and vision will be seamless and it will be possible to pull up images from the internet and literally swipe them onto the wall using your finger just like the track pad on your lap top. All of these techniques are available right now and are already being used in retail. If Audi can create a 3D car in a state of the art showroom and have that shown on a 3D festival sized screen then why not cascade that learning and capability into schools?

So what kind of space would we need for this? First of all something that extends the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom: a tailored design that fits its objectives and the characteristics of its learning community. The active classroom solutions that are coming out of the Future Classroom Lab’s work will need more space than traditional content-driven classrooms – and a requirement to shift away from the rectangle: rectangular buildings with rectangular classrooms full of rectangular furniture!

Individuals will be able to pursue different learning activities at the same time and the traditional ‘front’ of the classroom (represented by a white board and teacher’s desk) will be just one focal area among many. Space will become infinitely adaptable and reconfigurable; to better suit the needs of a new generation of peripatetic students who move or ‘flow’ through a school environment during the school day. They will be designed to be flexible and community-focused, with a multidisciplinary approach that considers teaching and learning models, the physical campus, future technology, and the students’ entire experience. I truly think we are entering the era of the agile learning environment – one that can be reconfigured or repurposed at will to engage different types of learners and teachers, one that can offer social learning spaces such as cafes and study or “break-out” areas to encourage learning through interaction. We can already see how effective this is with our recent project, Kings Maths School in London, which has various “pods” in which students can engage and share their learnings in a well-designed, flexible and relaxed environment.

It is also important to allow relevant experts to design and fit out different areas of a school, which will allow the school to benefit from their specific experience and expertise, rather than adopting a “one size fits all” approach. A company that is already pioneering this is Bryanston Square Holdings, with their “Fitout” service offer. Bryanston have built a portfolio of more than 120 organisations, who are expert in their own field and draw from these, to work closely with schools to design, fitout and manage inspiring learning environments. Schools, together with a Bryanston team of experts, redefine how learning environments should look and be managed. Success is then measured on how the spaces work and how effective they are in meeting the overall needs of the space and its users and occupiers.

Whatever ideas we come up with in education design, at the heart of all these should be the needs of the students and their teachers. In the school of the future, the environment will adapt to how children want to learn. It will provide children with everything they need to study, relax and play and it will give them a feeling that they belong there. This holistic approach to education design will create vibrant learning communities that thrive both in the virtual and real worlds.

retail revolution won’t be all click and no brick

Whoa! Hold on there, I hear you cry. What about all the savvy retail brands that are building omni-channel models, enabling their bricks and mortar offering to work symbiotically with their online activities? Well, I have bad news from Tim who thinks that omni-channel is no more than a term traditional retailers use to delude themselves that bricks and mortar retail spaces still have a role to play in the online paradigm of tomorrow. Is he right? Well, before the palpitations get too bad let me put your mind at rest. The simple answer is, No! In fact, his point of view couldn’t be further from the truth and this is being evidenced by a number of successful retailers, one of whom I will talk about in a moment.

Whilst he is correct that the Internet is forcing the traditional retailer to adapt and some are experiencing pain on the way, he misses the all important point that as part of their adaptation to a rapidly changing retail landscape, many of the savvier retailers are now delivering an omni-channel experience to their customers and reaping considerable rewards. They have a unique advantage that pure play internet brands like Ocado do not have, and that is true brand engagement with their customers, in other words an emotional connection. An internet purchase without social interaction and the very tactile nature of a retail environment will always be largely driven by price, a decision made without emotion.

For the more traditional retailers who have not yet grasped the omni-channel nettle, let me demystify it for you. Basically, it’s a seamless approach to the customer experience through all available shopping channels, where all the channels form part of a holistic customer journey.

Successful exponents of omni-channel include the John Lewis Partnership with its £1 billion Internet sales. JLP is a huge omni-channel success story and the company’s commitment to the concept is underlined by its recent appointment of Mark Lewis the ex MD of eBay. Mark was once a pure-play internet marketeer like Tim Steiner, but there the similarity ends. Unlike Tim, he sees stores as vital to the future success of retail brands, particularly at JLP where a new trading model has been rolled out, which links ‘bricks’ with ‘clicks’ in a seamless way that benefits both. Their recently launched Exeter store for example, successfully integrates terminals into a ‘showrooming’ approach to their retail offer. The figures speak for themselves, John Lewis’ internet sales increase locally by up to 30% following the opening of a new format store. And, in an inspiring piece of management wisdom, the company has also made the raising of internet sales figures part of the remit of regional store managers, who are then responsible for both stores and internet sales levels in their geographic area. The ‘cherry on top’ is added with another little known fact, a very high percentage of those customers collecting internet orders in-store also buy something when they collect their order!

So, whilst forming part of a holistic customer journey, the retail store has two other benefits up its sleeve that an Internet counterpart cannot offer; emotional experiences and true customer satisfaction driven by personal interaction and staff. Whether internet brands like Amazon, Ocado and eBay like it or not, we Brits still list ‘going shopping’ as one of our most favourite leisure activities. It’s both a social and emotional pursuit. As designers, we can support the retailer in terms of the emotional experience, creating interiors that both entertain and inspire, but the customer satisfaction is down to the retailer and the quality and knowledge of their staff, again please refer to John Lewis, a very hard act to follow in this regard.

So, my message is one of hope for traditional retailers that create a truly omni-channel offer where the retail spaces emotionally engage and where customer service excels will not only survive but thrive. Old fashioned retail is dying out, long live omni-channel!

an end to clicks and bricks

Oh yes! We all know about the casualties of online versus online, the brands like Borders who fell foul of Amazon’s ability to trade out of football pitch sized sheds and cut costs across the board, but some products will never totally ‘fly’ in the purely online world.

Take clothes for example and shoes, people prefer to try something on in a shop, to know if those shoes are going to pinch without the hassle of having to return them if things don’t work out. Currently, 25-40% of all clothes bought over the internet are returned. Many shoppers order multiple sizes with a view to returning say 2 out of 3 items. It’s treating your living room like the old fashioned changing room in a store, with the added hassle of posting the stuff that is unwanted back to the supplier.

Some traders offer free returns, whilst others pass the cost on to the buyer. Whichever way, it’s a cost and hassle for retailer or consumer. The same applies to childrens’ clothes and accessories. If there’s a choice of being able to eyeball something, feel the quality, assess the safety, then parents will take it. This is probably why Kiddicare has taken over 10 ‘superstores’ from Best Buy (a victim of the clicks bricks struggle, a kettle is a kettle right? Do we need to touch it before we buy it?).

Kiddicare’s reason for leaving the sanctuary of the net for the choppy waters of the high street? To offer customers “A true multichannel experience” claims the retailer. In other words letting their customers shop with smartphones, tablets, laptops and even in stores as if waited upon by a single salesman, with an unfailing memory and uncanny intuition about their preferences.

Owned by Morrisons, Kiddicare is not the only retailer to take this step. Screwfix, the Mecca of plumbers and electricians, has opened no less than 270 shops since 2005. They realised that customers wanted both on and offline service when they spotted tradesmen sitting in the car park of their first store ordering online and then dashing in-store to pick up their purchases! Apparently, the queue for online orders was shorter than the other one! There’s an old maxim in retail, “Want to know know to do the right the thing? Ask the customer,” and in this instance they screamed “MULTICHANNEL.”

Even the mighty Amazon has cracked (just a little bit) under the pressure and is tip-toeing into the real world by installing lockers in shopping malls where customers can pick up deliveries. They also have a partner program where customers can return unwanted items to local shops across the UK, where they will be picked up by Amazon couriers, first steps towards bricks-and-mortardom? Let’s wait and see.

Matt Truman of True Capital, a fund that invests in consumer companies believes that all this suggests that online and traditional retailers are eventually “migrating to a middle ground.” Certainly John Lewis, which posts very healthy profits in a recessionary market has pioneered a hybrid trading paradigm that works for both company and customers. JLP claims that on and offline shopping spur each other on and that when a new shop opens, online sales in the vicinity jump by 20-40% “overnight”. Plus, nearly a third of all people who order online prefer to pick up their purchases in store and apparently 40% of those make an extra purchase when they pop in. The secret to online/offline trading? You do the maths!

The question for envious e-tailers is how to pluck the benefits of physical stores without incurring the costs. Most proceed gingerly, armed with high-tech weaponry. “Pop-up shops” generate buzz and then vanish. Ebay has tried them, and Winser London, a fashion website, plans to. Amazon’s ghostly high-street presence helps make delivery cheaper and more convenient, but so far it offers nothing more. Kiddicare plans 15 stores at most in Britain, a fraction of the number operated by its struggling competitor, Mothercare. They will be nimbler than traditional stores. Prices will appear on electronic labels and change with the push of a button.

Bricks-and-mortar merchants are likewise paring space and bulking up on technology. In Britain the number of outlets a retail chain needs to have national coverage has dropped from 200 in the pre-online era to 50-80, says Adrian D’Enrico of AXA Real Estate, an investment manager. House of Fraser is experimenting with shops that are little more than a changing room and rows of screens to order clothes. Hointer, a Seattle start-up, provides just enough space to display a sample of each type of jeans it sells; robots fetch the right size from the stockroom. On today’s high street, shopkeepers who stand still are unlikely to survive.