The space is half a meter high and is often another world.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “RET ui ide” (ID: retweixin), the author is here.
Currently, commercial space competition It has become one of the most competitive areas of business competition.
Layer height, as an important factor in the impact of business space, is affecting people’s consumption behaviors subtly.
The difference between half a meter can make a shopping center change the world.
Today we will study the subtle relationship between “level” and consumer experience.
Layer height change is a mapping of commercial content evolution
The commercial space is “grown up.”
When the first department stores in the world appeared, the heights were relatively low, such as Liberty’s, which opened in London in the 1880s.
Liberty’s
In the past 100 years, Westfield Shopping Centre, which opened in London in 2008, has an average net height of 4.6 meters. Compared to the old department stores, the space is very open.
WestfieldLondon
As the economy develops, people are increasingly demanding space. In the 1990s, Hong Kong-owned real estate companies brought the concept of space-consciousness to the mainland market. One of the phenomena was that the height of the shopping center began to become higher.
Commercial building codes require a net height of not less than 3.5 meters. It is generally believed in the industry that on this basis, an appropriate increase in height is beneficial to commercial operations. After entering the stock era, many renovation projects are also compressing structures and equipment space to obtain higher space.
The demand for “higher” in the industry is accompanied by changes in commercial content. When the experience of replacing goods becomes the core of physical business, physical space as a carrier of all content is necessary to make changes.
Business needs are also a reason for the commercial space to grow taller. For example, in recent years, the catering industry of domestic shopping centers has become more and more strict with regard to the sense of space and ventilation. At the moment, domestic catering is stationed in shopping centers, and it is often recommended to reserve 5 meters in height.
The weightless restaurant that started in Germany Spacelab uses the track-dumping system to create freshness, which is also based on sufficient floor height
For the physical business operators, whether it is traditional box-style business or block business, the higher level of height helps to create a sense of quality, which can be high for luxury goods, restaurants and other high-level Merchants create opportunities to enter and create possibilities for subsequent merchant turnover.
The subtle relationship between “higher” and consumption
For consumers, a slightly higher floor height will give a broad, open mind and body experience, while a low space will easily lead to a sense of oppression. Behind the “long heights” of the commercial body is to solve the small and deep needs of people in space through psychological care for people, thus affecting consumer behavior.
1. Adults are also obsessed with the “little country” experience
The Gulliver’s Travels has brought people’s imagination about the little country. If you can narrow yourself down, people will enter the world of imagination created by themselves.
The higher floor height enlarges the space, and people will feel their own “slightly shrinking” when they are inside. The aesthetic feeling produced by this kind of spatial contrast is similar to Su Shi’s depiction of “Shen Gaoyue, Xiaoshui”, which brings the aesthetic and defamiliarity of the space aesthetics. The energy contained in the space is as people imagine. freed.
Tokyo Ginza GINZA SIX opened in 2017 with an average net height of about 5 meters, which is a high level.
The squatter bookstore, which opened on the 6th floor, uses layered heights to create stacked bookshelves that create a view that can only be seen in libraries that rely on Western architecture. On the top floor, the glass dome can make people feel the depth of the place.
GINZA SIX Squatter Bookstore
2. Use a small mix of macros to reduce fatigue.
For the design of the experiential commercial space, the intimacy and humanity scale is a topic that cannot be avoided.
Higher floor heights actually provide a better way for commercial spaces to create intimacy: using small-scale detail spaces, such as landscape pieces, to match higher floor heights, distracting consumers Attention to slow down the fatigue generated in the building space.
In a relatively low space, even if the area is sufficient, the beauty of the detail space is difficult to fully release, and the taste is also reduced.
Georgetown Park, Washington, USA is a shopping mall that resembles European architecture and resembles Europe’s exclusive Shopping Arcade. This type of building is characterized by a linear moving line with a high arched dome.
2014 Georgetown Park has been remodeled with European-style decorations such as green plants, fountains and sculptures. The details of these details fill the horizontal and vertical spaces, giving the building a rich detail.
Georgetown Park
3. Architectural philosophy of the Renaissance – the symmetrical beauty of 1:1
Of course, the height of commercial buildings cannot be increased without limit. Too much openness and too compactness will bring people back.
In most projects, the net height of 3.5 to 4 meters gives people the most comfortable feeling, and in this kind of commercial space will get a sense of balance.
Aspect 1:1Human comfort is the essence of Western architectural thought in the Renaissance, and it has been in commercial design ever since. The width and floor height of the shopping mall corridor can give a sense of symmetry when it is 1:1. If it is too high, the environment will be cold and not comfortable enough. If it is too low, it will be wide and the store will have a sense of distance.
Thus, in the case of commercial building codes, a slightly higher floor height is good for the consumer’s wandering experience, but the corridor width should be considered.
Do not change the building,How to make the space “appear” higher?
In the era of stocks, many of the projects that are in need of renewed imagery have been fixed. In this case, how does the old reform project add “sensory height” to the space?
At the technical level, compression structure and equipment space is one of the solutions. In general, the presence of structural and equipment space will make the shopping mall’s net height 1/3 to 1/4 lower than the floor height. When retrofitting, the height of this interlayer can be reduced by means of a displacement structure, thereby increasing the net height.
Outer corridor profile node sketch (RET Ruiyide architectural planning partner hand-painted)
In addition to technical means, shopping centers can also be refined to create a higher “sensory height” using aesthetics.
1. Ceiling special design, fuzzy height concept
The direct factor that affects people’s high perception is the “ceiling.” The shopping center can use the special design of the ceiling to create a higher visual effect in color and structure to achieve the purpose of “increasing” the floor.
Australian shopping centre opened in 1971 Eastland Shopping Centre was remodeled in 2002 due to its old image, and the ceiling is one of its highlights.
In order to visually increase the floor height, the Eastland Shopping Centre not only uses a partial glass dome, but also has a three-dimensional device under the glass dome, which produces a light and dark effect when exposed to sunlight. A slightly more complex design blurs the concept of height and thus increases the effect.
Eastland Shopping Centre
2. “Shadow” the roof and create depth with darker colors
Using color to give people a psychological hint to enlarge the sense of space, similar to the effect of lifting the layer height.
The BAL shopping mall in Kyoto has a 50-year history and a low floor height. However, this does not prevent it from becoming one of the most important hit places for experiencing Kyoto culture.
Image from RET Ruiyide partner inspection real shot
As a business project known for creating a lifestyle, BAL covers lifestyle stores such as lifestyle collection stores, bookstores, and cafes.
In order to alleviate the lack of experience on the low floors, the BAL does not use too bright tones, but rather uses relatively dark lighting and partially painted solid black ceilings to create visual depth while blurring people’s The perception of the location of the roof, thereby diluting the disadvantage of lower floor height.
Image from RET Ruiyide partner inspection real shot
Overall, the design of the BAL and the living museums that the line of sight has not brought the feeling of oppression and perseverance, but rather quite warm.
Summary
The height of the building is an architectural feature that reflects the spirit of the place and the pursuit of the ideal business environment.
In seemingly immutable reinforced concrete, commercial space has always changed with people and evolved as needed.
A good mall will try to create a “escape” for the customer – triggering the consumer’s inner sense of relaxation in a space scene, cutting off the embarrassment and tension outside the mall – a value that is extremely important to the consumer.