Designing a permanently temporary space: with a flexible furniture system as key element

Abstract

E-commerce is becoming more popular, rents are getting higher and we are in the middle of a collaborative consumption movement. All these aspects have made the retail environment much more competitive and the model of a retail space has changed, and is continuing to change dramatically. The design of physical retail spaces has to change. They need to become more flexible and multifunctional to be able to rearrange venues for events and pop-up stores. This will give customers experiences as opposed to just selling products or services. The purpose of this thesis is to identify how temporary retail spaces look today and to investigate how they can be made to be more flexible by prioritizing furniture as their main tool. Thereafter, the goal is to develop a multifunctional and flexible furniture system that could create a permanently temporary space. The thesis includes researches about temporary retail spaces, three analyses of stores with flexible design, and finally the development and visualization of a final project. This project resulted in a furniture system with movable panels with different functions. They offer the possibility to rearrange a space with ease and to provide a rotation of a variety of pop-up stores, galleries, workshops and many other kinds of events.