[POP UP RETAIL : PRECIS]

[POP UP RETAIL]

 [HISTORY]

With a quick search on Google “Pop-Up Retail” will land thousands of articles and praises for this new innovative concept. Shopping for the twentieth second century is what pop-up retail poses to be.  Beginning deeply rooted in Japanese culture and their obsessions of limited edition and exclusive items retail stores would “pop” up typically out of necessity opening for a short amount of time selling out of merchandise closing only to open when stocks were full again. This trend spread like wild-fire, to the Americas and Europe being huge successes in Britain and the United states. Pioneering this movement is a group known as Vacant. It has brought to the table new innovative ideas such as Plane shop and Hotel shop. It is a new spin on rotating retail yet in a permanent space in obviously airports and hotels.

[STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS]

        Every thing that makes Pop Up retail great is what its greatest short comings are. Small mobile locations are easily over run with customers and run out of product. On the flip side pop up retail poses a discovery challenge to all who are near to explore and discover products typically over looked in permanent malls. Opportunities arise for any retail or service business to reach out to their market base and get exposure.

Location for Pop-Up retail is relative to the product the business is selling. Yet permanent locations previously mentioned like in air ports and hotels would allow pop-ups to share one large space rotating month, week, or day to satisfy the business' need. Location recently has been what has could mainly be said to have propelled the Pop-up craze to new heights. Typically expensive retail spaces with long leases are now being cut for shorter and cheaper leases due to the unoccupied space.

[EXAMPLES]

      Vacant, has come out with a lot of engaging concepts that have entertained the public while exposing them to a new way of shopping, such as the Pop-Up in Shanghai China, where Vacant created a 40 foot sneaker tower. Its intention and implementation was the user would use an iPad to select the shoe they wanted and would be able to watch “shoe angels” scale the tower in a harness to retrieve the shoes. 
[http://www.govacant.com/tower/]

      Puma also employed Vacant to provide a marketing event in china, unifying their involvement with Formula 1 racing. Vacant fashioned a race track from professional R/C racing tiles and bumpers and employed a professional 1/10t scale race car specialist at Tamiya to develop the perfect scale model of a Formula 1 vehicle. The track was laid in the iconic Puma logo and the public took part in a series of races enthralling the masses and exposing them to puma merchandise. [http://www.govacant.com/puma/]

       

[DOWNTOWN GREENSBORO GREENWAY : BEFORE AND AFTER]

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

[DOWNTOWN GREENSBORO GREENWAY : PROPOSAL]

[CONCEPT STATEMENT]

Sweat beading down the forehead of an urban athlete, every step or pedal counts, every breath calculated, and an oasis on the horizon one that refreshes without a need to stop: Paradise. Bringing new life into an abandoned bridge intertwined in the green-way project of Greensboro, is one that is to entice to public to be active and to comfort them that their city is progressive.  Exercise lanes would split from the main track allowing faster individuals or just those looking for a cool down will be embraced by cooling tunnels mimicking a light rain cooling the urban athlete to help push further. For those who are out to enjoy nature a shelter from the sun or a sudden down fall of rain is most welcoming in the main center lane, where art and swings will interact with all who are looking for refuge or rest. The approach needed for the public and the city is the same something old with a breath of new life. Simplicity, a place of refuge for the causal walker, the nature enthusiast, or the avid athlete, all will find a place to catch their breath cool down or warm up in the history of Greensboro. 

[DOWNTOWN GREENWAY PROJECT : LIGHT | COLOR | MOTION]

       The Downtown Greenway project includes a four mile biking and walking trail encircling downtown Greensboro. The project aims to connect the Greensboro community through open green spaces and to encourage alternative transportation. An abandoned railroad underpass near Lee Street will form a part of the Greenway. This underpass was used until Freeman Mill Road was constructed in the 1980s.

       The City of Greensboro is interested in creative proposals for this underpass to attract and engage the passersby. Your challenge for this project is to envision and express the genius loci of the place through light and color.

For more information go to [http://www.downtowngreenway.org/]

[LIGHT & COLOR]

Light and color’s interaction with our environment can dictate human emotion and instigate thousands of responses not only seen in our natural environment but in our built environments comprised of well laid plans of architecture.  Though the amount of conscious understanding of how much light and color’s influence has on us may be lost to most, but according to Steen Rasmussen it should be a revealing experience. The proper balance of color and light can influence a room. Color and light is the undiscovered emotion that enhances a room for example; bright light and bright colors creates an open feeling embracing the newly awake to the day’s adventure; using a different harmony of carefully selected color and amount of light can create a cozy warm hearth ready for the weary to sleep. This balance has been seen in religious places of worship to invoke reverence from those who enter as well as to enhance the pious in worship. The balance and utilization of light in planning a room or structure is as important as the structure itself. A magnificent room without proper light and color can make the room change from being enjoyable to being avoided, even more so if the natural change that occurs daily with the rise and fall of the sun is left unaccounted for light and color can become the enemy of space. Light can dance and illuminate a room, its absence can invoke rest or a void where as color on its own can invoke another spectrum of comfort or uncomfort. It is tantamount that they are used together in balance to mitigate the harmony that is to be felt sometimes emotionally, physically, or even spiritually.