New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 33/03C | Page 137

than focused on only one sector, such as food and
beverage. Instead, dining, beauty services, fashion
and corporate business all sit together. Within
the food and beverage and retail categories, the
choices vary from burgers to fine dining and sports-
wear to high fashion.
When Tiffany & Co’s flagship store joined the
ranks in 2016, it somehow felt at home alongside
Kiwi designer fashion, burger joints and cocktail
bars. Just as the area’s heritage sites work beauti-
fully with groundbreaking, architecturally designed
new additions.
Focused on holistic wellness and conscious living,
today’s consumer is more aware of space and their
community than ever before. To be successful,
today’s retail centre needs less mass-production,
more thought and a genuine focus on ambience.
Modern retail development should encompass
shared space – where pedestrian safety and
interaction is paramount – communal eating and
socialising areas, living walls and gardens, restored
and repurposed buildings, and nooks and crannies
that are amenable and interesting.
As evidenced in other corners of the globe such
as New York’s Soho or central Melbourne, where
this kind of development was pioneered, the most
successful in new retail precincts have personalities
both figurative and literal. The shopkeepers, bar
search | save | share at