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The Retail and Entertainment Committee (REC) fosters the
creation, discussion, and dissemination of knowledge about the
retail and entertainment environments among practitioners, clients,
retailers, and the general public to advance the practice and
improve the quality of retail and entertainment environments.
We have identified three principal areas of focus:
Retail and Community. How does retail and
entertainment architecture create and affect a sense of community?
What is the relationship between design solutions and sociological
or anthropological responses? What should communities look for in
good retail design? Can we identify successful examples of retail
architecture where the retail has created a sense of place and
identity for a community? We need to look for identifiable and
repeatable elements that produced that effect. Highlight retail
architects' (particularly AIA architects') role in helping to
create successful and livable communities through their retail
design solutions, and use those examples to support advocacy
of a higher quality of retail design.
Retail and Sustainability. There is both a need
and an opportunity to inform and guide the development of
sustainability programs both through our members' knowledge and
experience and through outside research. We need to be a part of
developing sustainable guidelines for this design type. To do that,
we need to know what is currently being done, what works and what
does not, and how greater sustainability (including, but not
limited to, USGBC LEED ratings) can be designed into retail
solutions. Possible relationships with university initiatives (such
as the Carnegie Mellon Unversity School of Architecture's Intelligent Workplace) could identify
sustainable options for retail design. We need to identify examples
of sustainable design in retail and to gather knowledge from our
members that can be consolidated into recommendations for other
organizations such as USGBC to inform their guidelines, improve
our members' ability to offer sustainable options, and highlight
the AIA’s leadership in creating sustainable
environments.
Retail and the Marketplace. Retail architecture is
highly influenced by the marketplace. Successful retail and
entertainment architecture must be as much about successful
business solutions as it is about "design." How does good retail or
entertainment design add value to our clients? Does design matter
in this design type? What constitutes "good" design? By
engaging our members and allied organizations, we can identify or
develop case studies of good design as good business, highlighting
how and why design creates value for all
of the players—retailers, developers, and the public. To do
this, we will
- Provide a forum for discussion about issues and
best practices in the area of retail and entertainment architecture
and urban design by actively engaging members of the Institute as
well as allied professions and public officials. We will develop
relationships with key organizations to facilitate this dialogue.
We will provide a vehicle for the facilitation, documentation, and
indexing of that dialogue for the use of everyone.
- Provide examples of how high-quality retail design
promotes more livable and sustainable communities through the
creation of places that engender and reinforce a sense of
community, to assist members and their clients in promoting
high-quality retail design.
- Promote the creation of new knowledge through selected
research projects of particular interest and use to the retail
design community.
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