Designing a concept store: an interdisciplinary design process

Abstract

The aim of this study is to introduce a design method for interior architecture education that would lead the students through the stages of the development of their projects. The design process is structured into five stages: concept development; spatial development; technical drawings and physical model; detailing and three-dimensional representation; finalization. The second goal is to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to stimulate creative thinking. Therefore, in this project interior architecture was related to several aspects of retailing and branding during the design process of a concept store. The proposed method has encouraged the formation of conceptual ideas in response to a defined design problem. By integrating interior architectural problems with retailing concepts, students have learned to analyze, research, devise design ideas, and transfer ideas into spatial compositions. This led to creative design solutions and diverse design approaches. The organization of the semester into stages has guided the students to approach the design problem gradually and to explore design solutions parallel to their conceptual ideas. By the end of the semester, the students were able to comprehend their progress along the design stages and to benefit from the interdisciplinary approach. Findings may be beneficial for students, design educators and designers interested in design process, interdisciplinarity processes, and designing retailing concept stores. The developed method may be used to provide students with structured design process skills.