LA.BO.works

It’s been a two weeks intensive study meeting  at Hasselt University, organized by the Faculty of Architecture and Arts. Hosted and guided by Katelijn Quartier, Jan Vanrie and Philippe Swartenbroux the 18 selected students have been working on questioning the borders of the future of retail integrating the spatial, experiential and digital aspects into a brand new concept.

Melania Vicentini (Politecnico di Milano), Ariane Flamend (UHasselt), Sofie van Rooij (TU Delft) and Emily van Vught (Emily van Vught) are persuaded that in the future we will have to become more conscious. Unik will sell customers digital designs and raw materials, in order to create your own clothing. The brand will therefor focus less on selling products, but more on creating a community in which designs can be shared. The store will become a place of interaction, where people of the community can meet, share their designs and create together.

Dress Box deals with e-commerce and the lack of personal interaction in the choice process; according to Martina Panzeri (Politecnico di Milano) Katrien Schepers (UHasselt) and Rosa Steenkamp (TU Delft), “the main idea is to give trustful and personal advices”. Several boxes are spread all over a city,  connected to a platform. Retrieving the client’s profile through internet and viewing the body shape, the advisor can come up with astonishing choices to wear. These choices can be projected on the client so he/she has an idea of the garments they are likely to buy.

Lauren Broshuis (TU Delft), Mariska Hobo (UHasselt) and Sonia Pravato (Politecnico di Milano) are questioning about the senses’ role, designing a store for perfumes, bringing back the whole experience starting from the expertise and the craftsmanship; the new scent will be infused by special memory or happening of the client, creating  The Scent of Memory.

The design proposal of Jolien Dubois (UHasselt), Paola Pucci (Politecnico di Milano), Raf Veijfeijken (UHasselt) and  Keimpke Zigterman (TU Delft) with Fit! is concerned with the frustration coming from e-commerce in terms of not customer friendly fitting facilities. “The big problem with online shopping is that you can’t fit the clothes before buying. In our store of the future, the fitting room will be the main element of the shop”. The idea is to combine two elements, “the display wall” and the experience room.The first one is meant to be the tool to select clothes, either offline or online, and the second one is the physical place the selected item are delivered to in order to be fitted on.

Crowdshopping is fascinated by the crowdfounding concept that is translated to the retail sector. “People demand a certain category of products in a certain environment. Other people whose interests are similar back up this idea. Over this, they feel connected and they can form a community. Designers can make a design based on the wishes of the community”. Benjamin Jansen (TU Delft), Charline Steuckers (UHasselt) and Cristian Yunes (free mover) want to make the journey to the store part of the whole experience and create a relationship between the store, the environment and the range of products: leisure becomes part of the shopping, in your preferred area.

Lectures/safari by:
Luc Campo (Retail Office)
Tom De Bruyne (SUE Amsterdam)
Prof. dr. Lieve Doucé (UHasselt)
Bas van den Heuvel (Proxible)
Luc Hubert (Retail Square)
Prof. dr. Wim Janssens (UHasselt)
Aline Julia (Fly Aline)
Dr. ir. Dion Kooijman (TUDelft)
Francesca Murialdo (Politecnico/laboMint)
dr. Ann Petermans (UHasselt)
Katelijn Quartier (UHasselt/Retailology)
Stefan Van Rompaey (Retail Update)
Philippe Swartenbroux (UHasselt/Pulsarchitecten)
Prof. dr. Jan Vanrie (UHasselt)

Design Tutorship
Francesca Murialdo (Politecnico/laboMint)
Leontine De Wit (TUDelft)
Susanne Pietsch (TUDelft)
Katelijn Quartier (UHasselt/Retailology)