The AIA Retail and Entertainment Knowledge Community (REKC) fosters the creation, discussion, and dissemination of knowledge about the retail and entertainment environments among practitioners, clients, retailers, and the general public to advance the practice and improve the quality of retail and entertainment environments.
To do this, we:
Provide a forum for discussion about issues and best practices in the area of retail and entertainment architecture and urban design, actively engaging members of the Institute as well as allied professions and public officials. We develop relationships with key organizations to facilitate this dialogue. We provide a vehicle for the facilitation, documentation and indexing of that dialogue for the use of everyone.
Provide examples of how quality retail design promotes more livable communities through the creation of places that engender and reinforce a sense of community, to assist members and their clients in promoting high quality retail design.
Promote the creation of new knowledge through selected research projects of particular interest and use to the retail design community.
We focus on the following areas of knowledge development:
Retail and the Marketplace: Retail architecture must be highly responsive to the marketplace. It is perhaps the most 'dog eat dog' element of the built environment. Successful retail/entertainment architecture must be as much about successful business solutions as it is about 'Design'. AIA member's ability to demonstrate a knowledge and control over more elements of this environment, and an understanding of those elements they cannot control, will strengthen our ability to influence and succeed in this market. By engaging our members and Allied Organizations, we develop and demonstrate case studies of good design as good business, highlighting HOW the design elements create value for ALL of the players, retailers, developers and the public.
Retail and Community: How does retail/entertainment architecture affect and create a sense of community. Identify successful examples of retail architecture where the retail has created a sense of place and identity for a community. Look for identifiable /repeatable elements which produced that effect. Highlight architects role in creating successful and livable communities.
Retail and Sustainability: Retail and sustainability are almost oxymorons today. There is an opportunity to inform and guide the development of sustainability programs through our member's knowledge and experience. We need to catalogue examples of sustainable design in retail, and to gather knowledge from our members that can be consolidated into recommendation for other organizations such as USGBA to inform their guidelines, while highlighting AIA's leadership in creating sustainable environments.
Contact rec@aia.org if you have any questions.