A Deprivation of Touch by Natasha Muirhead // Designer's Perspective
IRL Workplace & Retail Design in a Digital World
After months of remote working, and a global shift in the way that we carry out our lives, we are now in a position to return to the office. However, we face the new challenge of requiring employees to actively choose to inhabit it. A recent major trend in workplace design has seen a more domestic offering, with muted earthy tones, plush seating and diverse textures. These spaces, when paired with order and a modest amount of formality, can offer us something different, yet perhaps better, than our home environments- without forsaking a sense of comfort.
It’s not only workplaces who are adapting to our new outlook. Bricks and mortar retail spaces are having to redefine their offering in the wake of a huge rise in online sales. Super quick delivery ensures effortless convenience and in fashion retail financing apps such as Klarna allow users to order several sizes and styles of garments and send back the returns without money ever leaving our wallets, seemingly rendering the fitting room obsolete.
Major brands such as Samsung, Fendi and Hermes have opened virtual replicas of their flagship stores, existing in the Metaverse or offering visitors digital tours and access to their latest collections. Yet despite these ‘advancements’ in the way we shop, it might be surprising that Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google (who opened their first ever bricks and mortar store in 2021) are bucking the trend and investing in physical retail space. So why is it that these companies with their wealth of insight and data are putting an emphasis on IRL shopping?
Could it be the real need to engage and explore our sense of touch in the landscape outside our homes? During periods of isolation and lockdown people have been facing a deprivation of new sensory stimulation. Despite the virus our impulse to experience the physicality of goods is burgeoning. This presents a really exciting opportunity within retail design to experiment with how we can engage customers’ senses in new and tangible ways.
During the pandemic Supermarkets served us as highly functional environments and we lost the sense the joy attained when browsing, sampling and perusing the vegetable aisle, testing for ripeness. In response to this, a new breed of grocery store has opened in London. ‘Spring-to-Go’ , inspired by Mediterranean food markets, stock small producers and independent brands and offer abundant displays of naked, unwrapped groceries. They are bringing the sensorial delight back into the food shopping experience, the perfect antidote to faceless, touchless world of e-commerce.
In the realm of fashion retail; ‘Camille and Marc’ the womenswear store in Melbourne uses materials such as plaster, pearly onyx and travertine in a ‘homage to the sense of touch.’ Similar to the domestic workplace trend, this wealth of texture and the earthy pale peach and terracotta hues create a warm and enveloping environment, putting shoppers at ease and meeting them on a human level.
In order to foster these important real life interactions, and welcome customers into physical stores, the challenge for commercial designers is this: To create meaningful experiences which stimulate the customer on a sensory level, providing them with information which surpasses that which is available online and deliver an environment which is different and better than that of their own home.
Words by
Natasha Muirhead, Interior Designer