re.tTag

“Shopping buildings don’t age: they die young.” - Harvard Guide to Shopping. Target is moving online. The discount department store can’t compete with the convenience of the Internet. So, what is the future of retail? And what happens to the vacant space? re.tTag becomes Northland Shopping Centre’s greatest asset. The design of both an efficient waste service and a flexible retail architecture - assembled from what Target left behind. An authentic and transparent circular economy celebrating adjacencies between waste collection, upcycling, design, manufacture, and point-of-sale. Net positive consumerism, exhibited in an analogous architecture. The future of retail is radically recycled. Formerly single-use and disconnected from context, the project breaches the boundaries of Target’s big-box store to become an inviting suburban anchor – constantly in-flux and capable of evolving and expanding over time. A nod to Victor Gruen’s original ambitions, re.tTag is a scalable unit of urban planning where commodified urbanism, residential opportunities, and “pay to play” recreation attracts the shopper back into physical retail. re.tTag is a super-saturated architecture which leverages off the infrastructure of the shopping centre to sponsor civic life, enable climate action and to speculate on a more resilient city.