I was walking through a mall yesterday (by accident, incidentally) and noticed a Microsoft store. It was a sincere, and somewhat sad imitation of an Apple store. Limited fixtures, white palette, clean, yet not quite antiseptic. It did not have a staircase.
I once mused on the future of retail design. At first glance, the evolution of form seems heading in two similar, but subtly different directions--the box store and the distribution center. The former is generic, vast and impersonal--the latter is completely invisible because the shopping experience consists of mouse clicks and a visit from UPS a day or two later.
Meanwhile, in the real world, traditional retail continues to thrive, and it always will. I appreciate the paradox of retail design: it must be simultaneously fresh and reliable. If I walk into a clothing store I expect to see new fashions, yet I also expect to find the stuff that I've always worn. Absurd, contradictory? Yes, yes, yes, yes. That is how it has always been, and must be.
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