The purpose of this M.A. thesis is to re-interpretate design elements of department stores based on architectural characteristics which arouse the emotion of adoration.
The emergence of Bon Marche Department Store has its significance that is larger...
The purpose of this M.A. thesis is to re-interpretate design elements of department stores based on architectural characteristics which arouse the emotion of adoration.
The emergence of Bon Marche Department Store has its significance that is larger than the fact that it has established a new sales method in capitalistic market. A department store, a high-end retail store that sells a wide variety of goods altogether, is a place where goods themselves become a spectacle as everyday products are granted extraordinary aura. Boucicaut’s management style was successful not necessarily because of its method itself but because of the environment that surrounded and supported the method. While there was one-to-one communication between customers and goods, or customers and salespersons before the emergence of department stores, all goods are show in one place in the department stores, and consumers’ act of consumption has now changed to buy goods at fixed price. To attract consumers to a new sales place and encourage spending, Bon Marche Department Store needed a new, drastic, way of “showing” goods. Focusing on the full-scale change of commercial space as the emergence of department stores, this dissertation argued that the reason why department stores had successful sales methods and are still considered a representative commercial space is because the department stores are a sensory space. As opposed to other commercial spaces, department stores are combined with various architectural elements to function as a comprehensive sensory delivery medium.
Existing studies of department stores have focused on the functional, managerial and business aspects, architectural plans such as lighting planning, and social and service aspects. Even studies that considered psychological aspects often limited focus more on the psychology of spending as a ‘driving power for the increase in spending activities’ with the view of marketing than on the various sensory aspects that human begins feel in a space. As opposed to the approach to the psychology of spending on which these existing studies on architecture of department stores have focused, this dissertation aims at explaining with architectural devices the sensory functions of adoration that preexists the psychology of spending. The planning elements for the architecture of a department store may be different from religious architecture in terms of both functions and symbols, they all seem to be in common in terms of the psychology of adoration. The sensory experiences of human beings in a space are often dependent upon accumulated memories and symbols, and therefore, the same sentiment could result from different architectural types if the identical architectural language was used. Due to this effect, the language of adoration used in architecture before department stores can also cause similar feelings in department stores. The sentiment of adoration that occurs in commercial spaces have been mentioned by Walter Benjamin, Christian Mikunda, or Emile Zola, though these discussions were merely descriptions of emotion. Similarly, there are many existing studies on religious places. However, few studies explain materialism, a keyword that explains consumer capitalism in post-modern society, with a concrete architectural language. It is often said that architecture is a vessel that contains a society. Thus, it is closely related to commercial spaces of which content expressed is the social trends and thought—that is, consumer capitalism— and therefore, this dissertation attempts to explain this relationship with architectural devices. It is also hoped that with this study, materialism can be understood by architectural devices.
Before the analysis, the dissertation conducted a survey on the characteristics of the architecture of department stores, spatial psychology, the relation between the psychology of spending and adoration, and architectural language of adoration. Later, the dissertation discussed the significance of the emergence of department stores, historical circumstances of the architecture of department stores, and differences between the architecture of department stores and that of other commercial spaces, and observed as theoretical bases the relation between the significance of the act of consumption and commercial spaces. Furthermore, the dissertation examined architectural characteristics of spaces of adoration and deduced by literature surveys and field studies that such characteristics were also used in commercial spaces, including the architecture of departments. Finally, the dissertation analyzed Bon Marche Department Store, the first department store, major foreign department stores, as well as the main stores of major Korean department stores, such as Lotte, Hyundai, and Shinsegye by eight elements—transcendental scale, exterior and entrance space, compartmentalization of seclusion and alienation, axis and superiority of the center, non-linguistic edification of storytelling, hierarchy based on dramatic direction of light, illusion by mirrors, and curiosity based on vagueness and secrecy. People could feel sanctity and nobleness in the holy place, Bon Marche and this affected the frequency of customers' visits and consumption. New type of architecture, the department store has handed down to current condition of department stores only with changing styles and the design elements of adoration make people visit department stores and buy goods more.