Scenario Laboratory has been published in June 2022 and has officially started online pre-sale (see the poster in the text for the entrance).
▲ "LAUNCH First Release 04: Digital Marketplace", Published by CITIC Publishing Group in June 2022
The business proposition of "Digital Marketplace" aims to conquer space with time and measure time with feelings. We are trying to explore the new digital proposition of urban life, urban commerce, and urban culture in the web of meaning that integrates various aspects of urban life. "Wu Sheng Creation" today shares a case interview article on the MOOK topic "Returning to the Market: Diversity Returns Nearby", which comes from the dialogue between Meng Huan, partner of Scenario Lab, and the REGULAR team.
REGULAR Yuanye (hereinafter referred to as REGULAR) is located in the sunken square of Dayuan Central Park in Chengdu. It includes 3 sunken outdoor gardens and 1 public art space, and gathers more than 20 lifestyle brands, including bakeries, cafes, Restaurants, flower shops, barber shops, boutiques, natural art studios, etc. Since the first batch of spaces opened in July 2021, REGULAR has quickly become Chengdu's new city card, attracting attention from all parties, and has gradually become a representative of the current popular "park business" and "urban renewal" cases. In the words of the REGULAR team themselves, "A non-standard product is so popular, it feels like getting the extra questions right in the college entrance examination."
"LAUNCH First Release" This communication with the REGULAR team hopes to understand the original intention and business logic of REGULAR's project under the label, and also hopes to explore from the perspective of REGULAR under the theme of "returning to nearby life" The ideal relationship between commercial projects and cities, communities and people.
In our opinion, REGULAR uses a rare sense of balance to create new business possibilities - a more temporal wave, the consumption vitality of life flow, the "new neighborhood" in psychological distance, and self-organizing characteristics "Developers + merchants + consumers" value community. REGULAR's community builds , constantly forming new neighborhoods with the same spiritual world.
01 REGULAR and Chengdu
"LAUNCH First Release": REGULAR How to understand the current Chengdu lifestyle, and how to present and express its lifestyle characteristics in the project? Extending this question, I actually want to talk about the shaping of the relationship between commercial projects and cities.
REGULAR Team: "Leisure" has always been a lifestyle label in Chengdu. When it comes to "leisure", everyone will think of Chengdu people who love to bask in the sun, eat hot pot, and drink tea... But "leisure" will definitely have new expressions and new needs among young people. REGULAR hopes to present the current Chengdu and newer Chengdu. For example, young people actually like drinking tea, but they may drink new tea. There is a brand in the project called "tazaTe Dadi Tea House", which produces brewed tea that tastes like sparkling wine. In the evening, tazaTe will also provide wine, and everyone can have a leisurely drink in the garden. Chengdu’s lifestyle is continued in a way that young people like.
▲ Bakery
We prefer to position REGULAR as a "community project", not only for the surrounding few kilometers in physical space, but also for specific circles, hoping to connect the same type of people here. Generally speaking, it is aimed at a relatively mature customer group. Maturity does not define age, but represents experience. This group of people has life experience, has certain knowledge, has seen good things, and has higher requirements for the quality of life. We often see gray-haired old people coming to REGULAR. They enjoy life and appreciate the vitality of young people. Instead of the old people taking care of their children in the park as everyone imagines, young people come to hang out below. On weekends, there are especially many whole families coming together. The happiness that filled everyone also made us feel happy.
Therefore, the goal of REGULAR is not only to have good business returns and consumption, but also to truly create new value for business and bring some useful inspiration to the industry. The latter is more important to us.
02 REGULAR and park business
"LAUNCH first release": REGULAR is defined as the representative of "park business" by the outside world. How does REGULAR understand the characteristics of park business and its value to urban life?
REGULAR Team: From the timeline, when our project was promoted, the concept of "park business" had not been discussed at such a high level, and REGULAR did not deliberately label it "park business". It was a project adapted to local conditions, because it is located in For parks, environmental characteristics must be considered when making project positioning and business planning.
For example, the East Garden is closer to the park, so the connection with the park is particularly strengthened. The most typical one is FINE·PARK restaurant. Its store is located closest to the park, and you can quickly reach the center of the park through the door stairs. Different from stores in other cities, FINE·PARK proposes the concept of "picnic" in REGULAR. Some of the dishes in the store will be presented in the form of lunch boxes. It also provides rental services for picnic supplies, encouraging everyone to bring food to the park to enjoy the outdoors. picnic. FINE·PARK can be said to fully demonstrate our "adaptation to local conditions".
But if we want to refine the characteristics of "park business", we believe that it must be ecological and environmentally friendly, and must be well connected and echoed with the park environment. For example, the Korean styling brand by miga in REGULAR West Garden, it is difficult for people who go there for the first time to associate it with a barber shop. The entrance of by miga is a tree, and an arc-shaped rest area is formed around the tree - the entrance of the barber shop is like a corner of the park, where people can sit and rest at any time.
The business layout of park businesses should focus on daily life, so that people can "come here every day", buy a piece of bread, drink tea, and take a walk while walking the dog in the morning. At the same time, the stores and brands that are settled should not give people a sense of oppression. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can still browse easily. We hope that REGULAR can become a common choice in people's lives and a destination that can be visited on a spur-of-the-moment basis without having to make a particularly serious decision, with a strong purpose.
▲ REGULAR The team pursues a sense of freedom in public space
Parks are public spaces in the city, and park businesses also carry out the creation of public spaces. REGULAR designed the public art space gregarious in the middle of three gardens, constantly updating curation, pop-up stores, and limited spaces, including specially displaying magazines "B" and "F" to use content to make the space flow and establish in-depth communication for people. bridge. There are enough seats throughout the project space so that everyone can sit down, read, and chat at any time, striving to create a sense of ease in a public space.
03 REGULAR and the host brand
"LAUNCH First Release" : REGULAR's model of aggregating host brands, how is it demonstrated internally, the principles for selecting the host brand, and what is the consensus that both parties need to reach?
REGULAR team : After we completed the preliminary inspection of the project, we clearly positioned ourselves as a "lifestyle" brand internally. The
project itself is relatively small, only 6,500 square meters, and can accommodate more than 20 stores after design. Therefore, we decided to gather more "non-standard" owner brands here to make the limited space more colorful. diversity.
Choosing the host brand is basically a matter of "chatting". We will understand the brand's own development plan, the compatibility of both parties' understanding of the project, and whether the brand is willing to make some new attempts and inject new elements into REGULAR.
is also very special. We will focus on the relationship between "neighbors on the left and right" to see if the values and tonality are consistent with each other. We once had a chat with a manager, during which he casually said, "It's a good place here, the customers are very good, and the merchants are also very good..." His sentiments made us feel very precious.
When it comes to project implementation, we will conduct overall control over the store design to ensure quality.During this process, we will be particularly vigilant about some elements that suddenly become popular, and try our best to pursue the temporality of aesthetics instead of short-term Internet celebrity. This is also the concept that REGULAR wants to express. It may seem ordinary, but it can continue to be integrated into life and become daily life.
04 The story of a host brand: Huangshi Park
"LAUNCH first release" : Choose a host brand and talk about the story behind it.
REGULAR Team : A brand that we think is quite special is "Barren Stone Park". The two managers of Huangshi Park, Xiao Xiong and Azhe, have always been rooted in Chengdu. After graduating from university, they only worked as office workers for one day. After completing the induction process, they sat in the cubicle and felt that this was not the life they wanted. They decided to resign that day. Then in 2010, "Barren Stone Park" was founded. They use insects and plants collected in nature or daily life as materials to create specimen artworks, turning these natural-themed works into objects that convey the beauty of life.
▲ Barestone Park store interior
Barestone Park visited three places before settling in REGULAR, almost all in inconspicuous corners. Initially, the Huangshi Park store offered afternoon tea, which was made by the two managers themselves. But as the number of customers gradually increased, they took the initiative to stop the relatively high-profit afternoon tea because they felt that their creation and life were being affected. In the notice to customers who stopped for afternoon tea, they wrote: "For the two of us, Wild Rock Park is not a goal or task that we need to complete. It is more like our life itself, full of unknowns and explorations. We need to do The only thing is to devote our lives to it, to feel, to learn, and to try boldly. "
We have known the two managers for a long time, and we talked to them about the idea of REGULAR in the very early stages of the project. They feel like it. Especially since the project is in a park, there are materials everywhere for them to "pick up" and create. What’s particularly interesting is that now if we and other merchants find small, dying insects, such as butterflies, in the park, we will immediately notify them to come and collect them. (They do not accept live animals, and if there is still hope of survival, they will try to save them.)
▲ The butterfly specimens produced in Huangshi Park
are different from the shock of the entire specimen wall in the previous store. The Huangshi Park in REGULAR is an "archive" Museum". The specimen works are placed in large cabinets, and each drawer is numbered. The moment the visitor opens each drawer, it is a surprise to explore the unknown. Not only is each work unique, but the display in the drawer also changes every day. The Wild Rock Park is also the most popular place for children in the project. They are as happy as hunting for treasures in nature.
For the two managers, they regard this place more as their own studio rather than a shop. They are still in an inconspicuous corner, living and creating at their comfortable pace, and communicating with people through their works. The relationship between REGULAR and the brand is also such a relationship. It is not a simple business cooperation, but more like like-minded friends working together to build a viable community.
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文 | Meng Huan
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