Shopping Mall Design Based On Circulation Planning

The fast development of economy and urbanization of China will inevitablyresult in prosperous of retail commerce. A good shopping mall is an engine of acommercial circle of a city which can vitalize people’s life as well as encourageconsumption. Therefore it is worthwhile to study the elements that make a shoppingmall successful.The study of shopping mall design starts from review of definition, history andinternational and domestic trends. Then find valuable conclusions after substantialresearch of cases in real life.After study of shopping mall history and status in overseas countries and China,we found that there are4evident moves in shopping mall development industry inChina:1) Shopping mall development tide is spreading to mid and western China and2~4tier cities.2) Proportion of F&B and amusements in malls in metropolitan cities is rising.In the mean time, merchandize combination is more diversified with growing brandsselections. Therefore shopping malls have to become bigger in order to contain morebrands and more shops, more different restaurants.3) In order to compete with online shopping, design shopping mall needs toexplore quality experience while organizing the internal public spaces, and makesshopping malls like travel or recreational destinations as well as retail centers.4) With the development of rail track transportation in many cities, there will bebooming opportunities of developing efficient transportation hub shopping malls.The above trends are pushing shopping mall designer to focus on circulationplanning in order to lead people to see shops and make people willing to stay in themall and spend money in the mall, instead of using commodities as major attractions.Circulation design is becoming one of the key elements for the success of a mall.Circulation system is the lifeblood to all merchants in the mall.There are many sorts of circulation systems, among which the key system iscustomer circulation. Horizontal circulation is essential design focus when designing ahorizontal mall with large size plans; while vertical circulation is absolutely important for a vertical mall with many levels. In a large scale shopping mall with hundreds ofmerchants, circulation planning is to distribute people to every shop, as well asplanning space nodes to create special places for people to relax and gather. So as tofacilitate sales as well as enable people feel relaxed and comfortable to stay in themall.