As more and more trends are beginning to declare a new culture for "hanging out", such as the previous article I sent in about pop-up parties in New York, the exponential growth in re-inventing shacks, old factories, and shady restaurants to new relaxed nirvana for different kinds of sub-cultures is truly starting to spark my curiosity in the future of retail.
While the past 10 years has revealed the globalization of retailing, the trend of its evolution is starting to seem as if it jumped completely off-track from the previous mass-market, big-branding retail (i.e. Starbucks) phenomena into a new kind of its sort. Something more niche, less branded-just simple retail created and located in places that directly target the kind of people they envision in their store.
Also, while this retailing trend is still very young, the fact that it is slowly starting to appear in different cities around the world (Manila included) is definitely a factor to be considered. The article below is a blog post is another example of this new retail culture, one that is currently taking place in a building beside and beneath a flyover:
Source: NYTimes
London Underground | Canal Plus
By ELIAS REDSTONE
June 30, 2011, 3:13 pm
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Folly for a Flyover, located beneath the A12 highway in London, acts as a cafe as well as a venue for local artists. |
A rather peculiar building has appeared next to a canal in Hackney Wick, London. Just outside the future Olympics site, and shoehorned beneath the underpass of the A12 highway, “Folly for a Flyover” is the work of Assemble, a young collective of designers, artists and architects. The red brick structure — with a roof that peaks out between the eastbound and westbound lanes of highway above — was constructed by volunteers from reclaimed and donated materials. On the weekends the Folly houses a cafe, workshops and performances. Adventurous visitors can rent handmade rowboats from a small dock on the canal. In the evenings, from Friday to Sunday, there is a bar and an adjacent auditorium space underneath the highway, which hosts a series of screenings curated by the Barbican Art Gallery as part of its current exhibition “Watch Me Move: The Animation Show.”
Assemble came together in 2010, motivated by the need to break away from the formal language and processes of architectural practice. Its first project was the transformation of a derelict garage on Clerkenwell Road in central London into a temporary cinema, “The Cineroleum.” The Folly is more ambitious — and more public. It came into being thanks to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Create Art Award — set up to support participatory art projects — and will no doubt give people a new perspective on this underused and underappreciated location.
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| Studio Weave and Somewhere finish the Floating Cinema’s construction. It will be moored at Folly for a Flyover on July 9, prepared with a full day of programming. |
And, in a beautiful moment of synchronicity, the Floating Cinema will be moored next to the Folly for a Flyover on July 9, with a full day of programming.
