There was a time when quick meals was all about being quick and low cost. It was a brand new sufficient idea and so handy. So handy actually that quick meals retailers constructed their whole outlet, shopping for expertise, service ranges and meals requirements to fulfill the ‘quick’ and ‘low cost’ wants of shoppers. And it labored! Quick ahead a couple of years and improved schooling about diet, the necessity to eat wholesome meals and likewise the huge quantity of competitors available in the market has meant that quick meals chains should fully change their strategy to adapt to the brand new wants of the twenty first century client.
The main target is now on delivering a stronger model to achieve a broader base of shoppers that they need to linger round and make the outlet a part of their weekly or every day routine. So, what does the brand new model focus require? Nicely it must show freshness, good high quality substances, an improved shopping for expertise, a nicer seating atmosphere, higher consolation, extra visibility of meals preparation areas and improved conveniences.
Whereas the substances and the standard of meals are clearly a key and very important element of the model, this text focuses on the architectural and inside design of the outlet and the way the varied components of the inside design impression the model and due to this fact elevate the shopper expertise for contemporary quick meals chains.
Earlier than we take into account the design of quick meals chains, it’s value how luxurious items retailers and car showrooms have approached outlet or retailer design to ship their model. Luxurious manufacturers for instance have all the time designed shops to captivate distinct segments of the market, but maintained a way of delivering individuality. Luxurious shops virtually distinctly seem like missing within the quantity of merchandise that’s displayed and in some instances preserve plain colors and easy gentle furnishings to make prospects really feel relaxed. Automobile showrooms are a longtime instance for retailing as they’ve mastered the shopping for and ongoing servicing wants of shoppers in a single outlet. The way in which that showrooms are designed, permits car producers to offer an surroundings which permits them to handle the circulation or ‘journey’ from shopping for a brand new car, arranging finance, servicing and looking for elements, whereas having nice and effectively stocked ready areas. Each are examples of constructing shops that handle distinct wants, encourage loyalty and supply a clean journey from the preliminary need to buy to sealing the deal.
For architects and inside retail designers, quick meals retail design poses numerous challenges that must be addressed as a way to reinforce the brand new model challenges that retailers are confronted with.
The next supplies a abstract of a few of these challenges:
Meals Preparation – Offering extra visibility of meals preparation areas, together with open plan kitchen areas. This requires a sensible but additionally visibly extra nice meals space which is effectively lit, effectively organised and environment friendly. Specialist kitchen design that takes into consideration the meals cooking and preparation course of is known as for, requiring designers and designers to work carefully with a retailer to create kitchen structure plans that enable the meals preparation course of to stay environment friendly whereas remaining visibly pleasing and nice for buyer to see.
The Consuming in Expertise – The necessity to present an environment friendly seating association, with snug seats, whereas additionally paying shut consideration to retail lighting plans and retail flooring plans is so necessary because it permits prospects to really feel that they’ll keep for whereas, that is in sharp distinction to early quick meals eating places the place seating was designed to turn out to be uncomfortable after fifteen minutes, encouraging folks to go away the outlet.
Fixture and Becoming Choice – Inside retail designers additionally have to concentrate on different client wants resembling energy factors, interactive units for youngsters and including art work that reinforces the message concerning the ‘recent meals component’ – all necessary components that the model is attempting to ship.
Interactive Ordering Options – Retailers are additionally incorporating digital ordering stations into their layouts to permit prospects to pick out and pay for his or her order with out chatting with a member of employees. This requires much less employees in fact but it surely additionally requires the necessity to design a retail structure that enables for interactive kiosks which are strategically positioned inside the design of the outlet architectural drafter.
Improved Washroom Services – Retail designs and designers should design washroom services that meet model expectations. The services that they specify have to strengthen the model whereas sustaining a excessive diploma of cleanliness and even ‘self-cleaning’ services. The retail design drawings that they create for plumbing and waste should keep in mind right this moment’s environmentally.
Again of Home and Waste – Clients usually are not pleased sufficient with the expertise that they’ll see and really feel, in addition they need to understand how quick meals chains are managing their employees services, their meals storage and their waste, together with the shopper’s personal packaging waste. A retailer design isn’t full with out consideration to how these facets are added to the design of the outlet and the way they’re managed effectively and pretty and due to this fact they’re additionally an necessary a part of the design crew’s obligations.
The designers problem is due to this fact huge and moderately than permitting for the manufacturing of the design utilizing conventional 2D plans and elevations. The one solution to handle and talk the design course of in addition to handle modifications requested by stakeholders all through the method, is to make use of trendy design instruments resembling Revit Structure to create retail BIM fashions in order that they’ll create a design that’s simply changeable and manageable. Retail BIM modelling additionally permits for the use and re-usability of Revit households and fashions that can be utilized for subsequent shops and due to this fact guarantee some model consistency in addition to design effectivity. As soon as created, these retail BIM fashions may also enable the creation of 3d retail photos and 3d rendered perspective for retail interiors in addition to retail exteriors. These are an necessary and efficient method of speaking the shop or outlet design in the course of the varied design phases {that a} designer is chargeable for.
While the problem for quick meals retail is to offer meals faster and cheaper than different choices, there’s good motive to raise the significance of the shop design and the way that may have an effect on and in the end promote the general model expertise for quick meals retail now and effectively into the longer term. Managing that design course of and the multitude of design inputs is a collaborative and concerned course of and is one that’s served by a designer that’s ready to make use of CAD and BIM expertise because the spine for delivering a design resolution that’s straightforward to create, handle, share and talk.