Property Week – The Department Store Reborn

The emergence of online shopping has been gradually changing the physical retail landscape, already in freefall the pandemic has accelerated this decline and the demise of departments stores.

Property Week asked tp bennett to reinvent a redundant department store for the future.

Our concept reimagines the department store as an incubator for renewed community interaction, taking inspiration from the ancient Greek Agora, a centre for athletic, artistic, business, social, spiritual and political life in the city.

Redundant department stores will be repurposed into a new agora – a multifunctional space that will bring back non-retail services and functions that over the years gradually lost their place on the high street.

This new mix of uses will create a people-centred community, bringing purpose and joy back to town centres.

Look at our concept in detail here.