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Retail Delhi-based DCA Architects has designed many retail spaces in the past, and they plan to keep that going...
The designers at DCA Architects chose to add a bright pop-art frame to accentuate the smart wooden office of Chemon, Delhi.
80 CW Interiors | December 2015 This article was featured in CW INTERIORS, India’s first B2B Interiors magazine from the house of ASAPP Media Information Group. For more details on the magazine visit www.cwinteriors.in or mail: sub@asappmedia.com for subscription and sales@asappmedia.com to advertise.
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The curved islands and carved display walls in Entice’s showroom take inspiration from traditional Indian motifs.
Founded in 1996 by Amit Aurora and Rahul Bansal, both architecture graduates of New Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture, DCA Architects is an award-winning design firm that has worked across various retail verticals. Over the past 19 years, DCA has conceptualised retail identities of various global brands, luxury stores and boutiques, including Rolex, Versace, Chanel, Gucci, Bvlgari, Longines, Tom Ford etc. With a mantra of ‘Dream. Design. Discover. Deliver.’, DCA provides services in architecture, interior designing and design co-ordination across a wide range of spaces including offices, residential, retail/ luxury retail and hospitality on a pan-India basis. Retail design forms 40 per cent of DCA’s overall project load and if one were to add service-oriented retail space like salons and spas, it is 60 per cent of DCA’s work. In an interview in DCA’s New Delhi office, Amit Aurora, one of the two principals, talks to PREETI VERMA LAL about the challenges and opportunities of Indian retail space.
India is the fifth-largest global destination in the retail space with this industry accounting for over 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and roughly 8 per cent of employment. What are the big challenges in retail space design? The dark wood furniture against muted tiles entices patrons into the Johnson Watch’s Delhi outlet.
In India, it is difficult to put the retail space within one defined parenthesis. The retail idiom is so multi-layered that there can never be a set of textbook challenges for designing retail space. Not only are there various economic retail verticals like luxury, premium, and ordinary; there are also countless varieties of retail space - clothing, jewellery, etc, with each vertical having its own set of challenges.
Maybe not textbook, but what are the generic retail space design challenges? Consumers now have more expectations, expect value till the last penny and are more aware about what is happening in the retail space worldwide. Depending on how you look at it, all these challenges can be big opportunities to get more creative and do
CW Interiors | December 2015 81 This article was featured in CW INTERIORS, India’s first B2B Interiors magazine from the house of ASAPP Media Information Group. For more details on the magazine visit www.cwinteriors.in or mail: sub@asappmedia.com for subscription and sales@asappmedia.com to advertise.
…designers take The ambience of the L’Opera, Delhi, is a perfect amalgamation of petite French design and bold Indian colours.
of our client and his clients, and then design a particular space.
Has the glut of e-commerce added to the challenges of a retail space designer?
The designers decided to keep a major percentage of the central space in the Bholanath Brothers’ boutique to entertain more patrons.
better. Retail space is all about functionality and the experience of shopping. For example, the definition of functionality for Hazorrilal’s, a premium jewellery store in New Delhi that we recently designed, is very different from our design for Looks Salon. Both might have the same physical space, but the challenge is to get behind the mind
In a way, yes. Because there is so much available online that you have to do something very creative, or different to compel the buyer to walk into the store and buy something over ordering it online. We often have to juggle with the space available. In Mumbai’s Akbarally’s store, we actually reduced the usable carpet area, but after the renovation, shoppers thought Akbarally’s had expanded physically. As an architect/ designer that is where the challenge lies. To create an experience and not merely redo or create a good-looking space.
How different is the process of designing, say, a luxury space and a mid-level retail space? If you really look at the tangible process, there is not much difference. At DCA, we
82 CW Interiors | December 2015 This article was featured in CW INTERIORS, India’s first B2B Interiors magazine from the house of ASAPP Media Information Group. For more details on the magazine visit www.cwinteriors.in or mail: sub@asappmedia.com for subscription and sales@asappmedia.com to advertise.
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Salons extend way beyond the treatment areas, as seen in this beautifully designed L’oreal branch.
The classy beige interiors of the Hazoorilal Jewellers showroom are an extension of the brand’s products.
stick to our promises. Irrespective of the area, or budget, we begin with understanding the client and his product first. Then, within a couple of weeks we furnish the basics. Up to this point, there is not much difference; the devil lies in the details. A clothing retail store will have to look distinct from a jewellery store. Within each segment, each store could have its own signature style.
What about retail space for international luxury brands? You have done stores for Versace, Gucci, Rolex, and Longines, to name a few. Is there a paradigm shift in design basics for these retail stores? To begin with, most of these uber-luxurious stores already have a signature design in place and there is not much one can play around. A Versace store in New Delhi will bear striking resemblance to a Versace store in Milan or New York. We help with MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing). These might seem merely the invisibles but it can be challenging. For example, because of CW Interiors | December 2015 83 This article was featured in CW INTERIORS, India’s first B2B Interiors magazine from the house of ASAPP Media Information Group. For more details on the magazine visit www.cwinteriors.in or mail: sub@asappmedia.com for subscription and sales@asappmedia.com to advertise.
…designers take The funky fixtures in Amour Bistro make it a warm and inviting space.
varied climate, the concept of airconditioning in India and Europe is absolutely different. The intangibles have to be location-specific. It might seem an easy chore, but it is not. Sourcing local equivalent material for these luxury chains can also be a tedious task. So, we might not contribute anything ‘creatively’ but stepping in can be challenging. For Rolex, we manufactured the furniture but had to religiously stick to Rolex’s international specifications.
There is such a dearth of luxury retail space in India. Where is ‘retail’ headed? Sadly, not much is happening. All we can talk about is DLF Emporio in New Delhi. The Palladium in Mumbai is a close second but does not really meet international luxury retail requirements. There is a luxury retail space coming up in Kolkata but nothing to be proud of.
Should the government step in to pep the retail space? It is not for the government to make a move, the market forces need to get together to create a better retail experience.
You have been designing retail space for almost two decades. What differences do you notice? When we started in 1996, the mall culture was not even a distant dream. E-commerce was not on the horizon. So, if you had to buy something, you had to step into a store. Retail was an essential part of life. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the retail glut started, we rolled out a lot of stores for Color Plus and Park Avenue. These stood out in the crowd, but on the whole, the Indian retail space had a lot of teething problems. Even now, India’s retail space design is in a nascent stage. We have a long way to go. Functionality and experience will continue to remain the keywords in the future as well. i Text: Preeti
Verma Lal
CONTACT
DCA Architects 344, Sultanpur, New Delhi- 110 030 Tel: 011-2680 2444/45 E-mail: dcaarch@dcaarch.com www.groupdca.in
84 CW Interiors | December 2015 This article was featured in CW INTERIORS, India’s first B2B Interiors magazine from the house of ASAPP Media Information Group. For more details on the magazine visit www.cwinteriors.in or mail: sub@asappmedia.com for subscription and sales@asappmedia.com to advertise.