Lighting Makes a Great Retail Space

Shelf up-lighting at Sephora

What are some of your favorite retail spaces? My South Florida favorites include the Peter Marino designed Lana Marks store on Worth Avenue, the butterfly mobiles in the atrium above the Neiman Marcus escalators, Louis Vuitton and Prada, Sephora, Lacoste, Bebe, the red-carpeted Christian Louboutin shop in the Miami Design District and the Brazilian Artefacto furniture showroom in Coral Gables (best I’ve seen for furniture showroom layout). Yes, yes I might be name dropping but that’s only because they are places where theatrics move us. The architecture lures you into the space from outside. This doesn’t happen at Target or Wal-mart (which are stores that I love and where I’m a frequent shopper). I could delve into the details about customer demographics, product marketing, spacing racks close together so you brush-up on an items which in turn peaks your interest and the psychology of shopping. But I think that great retail experiences are about all of that and more importantly about the architecture; specifically the lighting. That’s what all of these spaces have in common. They have fabulous lighting. They have lighting from above, behind, and below. They have colored lighting, timer lighting, faded lighting, up-lighting and down-lighting. The lighting enhances carefully chosen finishes and this is what shows off the merchandise – especially if the merchandise is properly spaced and never over-crowded. A good sound system and great music helps too but ultimately the perfect lighting design makes any space a work of art and after all, that’s what architecture is all about.

Best wishes,

CCS Architect

Colored lights on a timer at Lacoste

Visit our website www.ccsarchenter.com for more information about CCS Architecture and Interior Design and visit our blog to read this post at http://ccsarchenter.blogspot.com

Also follow CCS on twitter http://twitter.com/CCSArchitect