Project Evolution

Design

28/01/11 Crit

Continued with my last film, which is about the experience of shopping, I did some study around this area. I found a quote by Tim Jackson, an economics commissioner, which is quite interesting. "Human beings have something of an appetite for novelty. We love new stuffs - new ideas, new adventures, new experiences." I think it's also because of that we have "hyper-consumption" in the 20th century. We shop, we buy and we possess more than we need to. Thus, from my research, I think, stepping into the 21st century, "ownership society" is going to be replaced by "collaborative consumption", an idea suggested by Rachel Botsman, in which sharing, bartering, renting are reinvented through social network technologies. And by that, consumption becomes more sustainable, consumer goods are fully and efficiently utilized by everyone.

In 1909, when Gordon Selfridges brought in Selfridges, he promoted that shopping wasn't just about buying and selling - an exchange of commodity, it is about an experience. He revolutionized the way people shopped. Having this spirit in Selfridges, I chose it to design and propose a new mode of living and consumption.

I am going to design Selfridges in 2020. To put that in words, my project is "The SELF-designed Apartment". It is like a Selfridges serviced apartment with the Selfridges Club. In short, people will go in and live inside Selfridges. While they are living in there, Selfridges, as a department store with different departments, provides all the resources which they need. For example, they can either go to the womenswear/menswear department for "borrowing" everyday clothing and accessories or order that online with the help of virtual changing and fitting space. The Selfridges Club provides the cookery classes, gym facilities, etc. all based on its existing departments.

The benefits of this proposal are we perceive our spaces differently in this mode. Living, shopping and club activities are all in one space, strengthening social interaction between one another. And as we don't possess so much physical personal belongings, it is easier to change our place of living, (especially applicable to travelling nomads either for business or leisure), satisfying our novelty, and at the same time, economical and environmental sustainable. Living space will also be more spatial because of that. In addition, no chores or cleaning required saves time for club activities and more social interaction.

The film is expressed moving through an abstract landscape. This landscape is composed of different consumer objects. Taking the analogy of everything is provided from the consumers' cloud landscape, spaces are interpreted through the shift in perception and movement of the camera/characters.

The film is set up to be on a Sunday - beginning from the character getting out of her bed and enjoying herself with the company of her friend in this cloud landscape with various advanced technologies. The film ends when she ends the day to sleep. The voice-over plays a juxtaposition of different languages to show the juxtaposition of both places and time.

REFINED

Design Intention/Objective

As Selfridges is promoted as for everyone, without class classification - having the collaborative consumption services provided helps fulfilling this motive.

Design Ideas

To me, experience of shopping comes mainly from consumer goods.

[-> That's why my landscape is built up by the spatial arrangement of different consumer goods one can find in Selfridges.]

Be explicit about the object you choose in your drawings - the sense of value of them.

It's a psychogeographical landscape.

It's a manipulatable places.

Living in a cloud of collaborative culture.

[->implication: we share the same things - our ownership of that things comes from our self-customization / personalisation of those objects. That means with the same object - it can be perceived differently depends on how each individual (camera) views it - aka. the same space could be defined differently with different usages of it.]

Shopping is about making choices - to find what you like.

"We consume the 'software' / 'service' of an object / consumer good, we don't need to own the 'hardware' as it is more beneficial to share with others." <- be explicit about this on architecture/spatial design. {is that = where you physically are is not important. The experience / the immediate environment or objects that around you are more important.} I, as an architect, just like any other architect nowadays, design how different objects are spatially arranged together, expressing the relationship between different objects that create different experience.

Design Proposal

Selfridges is not only a place where buying and selling occur. It will also function as a "library" where collaborative consumption (the new mode of consumption in the 21st century) is encouraged - just like its spirit of having revolutionary ideas in shopping and shopping experience should not be hindered by class.

With collaborative consumption, people uses less money to "borrow" than to "buy" the service (software) provided by the consumer objects, hence people with less money is now also capable to enjoy the service that was used to be privileged to the richer people. The only difference is that they do not own the object, as they also do not have the need to.

You don't need to live in Selfridges, but you can still borrow any stuffs from them as long as you pay a small amount of membership fee. Selfridges also forms alliances with other department store around the world, in such case, travelling around different places for different life experience and social interaction are very much encouraged. [Thus, the sociability of shopping is brought to a new level - that it promotes also a new life-style. ]

How does that affect the spatial design?

The idea of home becomes contextual. Home = immediate surrounding

Thesis

Sociability in Shopping (Selfridges)

- engaging with other people / community / social interactions / physical or virtual connection between people / collaborative consumption

Things to Do

Photo Analysis of Selfridges - about sociability of the current store

How the construction of the store (fittings / fabrication / psychological qualities / material / etc) helps the sociability of the "shopping" experience?

Collaborative Consumption will increase sociability.