De-assembling the Retail Experience

The commercial street is the backbone of the modern city’s evolution. The project focuses on the changes and upheaval that are occurring in retail spaces and may dramatically affect the urban public spaces and their uses in the future.

Upheavals within the retail field include urbanization and changes in urban density, the rise in

e-commerce, changes in the urban logistics chain, differences in generational behaviors, and zoning and suburbanization that have been assimilated into modern planning but have not been revisited. By reexamining the commercial street typology and considering the wanderers’ motivation to leave the virtual world, the project sees an opportunity to enrich our public realm by making cities and streets vibrant, social, and experiential. It presents a universal step-by-step guide for designing urban commercial streets and developing a “cluster-scattering” typology.

Neot-peres b’, Haifa, was selected as a case study for the new typology and guides and principles testing.