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Low Refeilf Retail Park


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Hi all,

 

So for my new entry I'm going to do a low releif retail park, looking at it from the front.

 

For the past week or so I've been making some plans (I started planning it before I took the decision to scrap the last project).

 

Designing it is a difficult one. I'm trying to get that right balance between it being interesting to look at, but also interesting to build. Make it too interesting and it could be hard for me to construct. Make it easy to construct and it could be boring to look at. I'm also going to do it in a 'modular' sort of way. I'll build two, maybe three (time dependent) blocks of two shops. These can then be fixed together or arranged however.

 

I'll use big name shops you often find in retail parks. I might also give it a late 90s early 00s sort of feel to it (so could of course use some older logos). Such store ideas include: NEXT, Halfords, Focus (if I go for current scene I'll probably have to hang a 'for sale' sign on this one :)), Screwfix, Toys R Us, Argos etc etc.

 

So here is the first draft of what it might look like. Insperation for this particular design comes from Waterside Retail Park in Ilkeston.

 

post-12330-0-10153200-1343407785_thumb.png

 

Dimensions will be worked out when I've decided what I want it to look like.

 

All for now,

 

Heinz

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Hi there,

 

Yeah I see what you mean. I think it could also depend on the store type though. For example, down at Waterside where I got some of the insperation some of the stores don't have window displays (like the Brantanos, or old Focus) but some do (like the Argos). But they all do have plenty of glass around the doorways.

 

Maybe to add the interest I could vary it from store to store. It would certainly add some interest, because it would help make them all differant in there own way. Perhaps one store doesn't have any, but the next might have a small amount of window display. Whilst the third could have a lot. Maybe that could work?

 

Cheers

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I think that would work, I know what you mean at certain retail parks they don't have display windows as there is nothing attractive to display! Hardware stores for example.

 

It depends what type of retail park you want to go for, a shoppers one with clothes shops and food outlets and the like, or a more 'industrial' one with hardware stores, electrical stores etc.

 

Looking forward to seeing it progress though, do put some photos up

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Or you could be really lazy....

 

http://summit-customcuts.com/stripmallbdbuilding.html :O

 

Seriously it does vary from park to park. The normal "big box" retail parks tend to have a lot of glass frontage. On the other hand more industrial style "business parks" lean towards the minimal window frontage. I guess it all comes down to what type of shops you are planning on having. Hobbycraft, Maplin, Sports Direct type of things would be mostly glass frontage. As you mentioned, Focus, Halfords, DFS type of shops are mostly blank faced buildings.

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Thanks chaps.

 

I've finalised my design, which will use the template diagram from the first post. With as I mentioned the glass frontage varying from shop to shop.

 

I have also decided which shops I will use:

 

Halfords (minimal glass), Argos (plenty of glass), Next (small amount of glass), Screwfix (minimal glass), Staples (minimal glass), Comet (small amount of glass).

 

Now the car park, retail parks have massive ones. It will of course be difficult to (spaze wise) to build the whole lot. So I won't. instead I'll just do the pavement and first row of parking spaces.

 

I hope to start construction when I come back from my holiday.

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