Green Store – Challenge to design a Florist store

Green Store – Challenge to design a Florist store

FLORISTS OF NETHERLANDS

Humans tend to be intrinsically drawn to nature. We often seek out nature and strive to find ways to incorporate or bring nature into the spaces we inhabit. A small but significant contributor to this need for biophilia is florists. Florists the world over, curate plants and flowers for people to bring into their homes.

They act as not just retailers but they also often become means to learn about plants and tend to them. An important skill that we might need as we are increasingly faced with mounting environmental challenges. In Zundert Netherlands this relationship between plants and people takes on a larger form. Zundert annually hosts one of the biggest flower parades in the world.

Given the city’s relationship to flowers, it poses as an intriguing space to imagine possibilities of including and celebrating florists in spaces that stay all year round.

BRIEF OF COMPETITION

Today florists are more often than not small spaces where the source of the products is removed from the retail experience. Functional greenhouses often far from the store itself supply these stores that then supply these plants to consumers.

What if we could combine the values of a florist to an immersive retail experience where a consumer doesn’t just passively receive plants but can experience the specific and often even detailed needs of the plants they take home.

The challenge here is to design one such space for a florist. The store must not just provide an immersive retail experience but it must also help the florist make his process and efforts more tangible and visible.

Further, while the design need not be limited it should keep in mind the given sites’ existing relationship with flowers and plants and attempt to celebrate the same.