What does placemaking mean in a Mall?

In the mall / retail business, it’s important to understand how people see things and move across spaces.

Some malls just feel ‘right’ … that’s not an accident and its subtle.

Sight lines, lighting, colour and ‘invisible’ barriers can change people’s direction and make or break a shop, shops or even an entire mall so easily.

Acres of open space may look grand on the plans, but many people change their route to avoid them … often selecting one side or the other to walk across, thus potentially creating a ‘strong’ side trading wise and a weak side …. Even the tiling pattern can have an impact.

Often mall managers and leasing professionals come on the scene too late in the design and construction process and must try and deal with poorly executed and poorly designed mall spaces that create dead end zones or kill foot traffic.

Look at these 2 simple examples ….

Its critical to get specialist mall / retail architects and experienced mall operators involved as early as possible to ensure common mistakes are avoided up front.

The consequences of not doing so are huge – from vacant shops sitting unlet for years, to getting lost in car parks, store failures, declining rentals .. the list goes on and on…. It all adds up to a poor customer experience and financial losses.

We at Mall Advisory Services have decades of mall concept design experience, having worked with some of the world’s leading retail architects on projects big and small. We offer a concept design review service that will potentially save you millions.

To date we have revitalised more than 55 distressed malls in multiple regions.

For more information go to www.malladvisoryservices.com

or contact us direct on [email protected]