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Retail

Arup works for some of the world’s favourite retailers and developers, designing and engineering ambitious luxury outlets and mall brands alike.

Arup works for some of the world’s favourite retailers and developers, designing and engineering ambitious luxury outlets and mall brands alike.

St David's shopping centre St David's shopping centre

A multidisciplinary partner

A successful retail development is one that draws people in, stimulates their senses and encourages sales. It must be designed to optimise footfall and enjoyment without ignoring the essential considerations of flexibility, security, sustainability and long-term value.

For over 70 years, Arup has worked on retail projects of every size and nature, from single unit refurbishments to vast mixed-use malls. Our design skills are comprehensive and scalable. We can provide multi-disciplinary engineering design services for a vast mall or design a refined lighting scheme for a boutique experience. Whether it is our fire engineers designing effective evacuation strategies or our specialists in pedestrian flow predicting the movements of tens of thousands of people using Arup’s own MassMotion tool, we have the breadth and depth of skills necessary to meet your needs.

The bigger picture

Today, retail developments are rarely just about retail. They’re part of airports, railway stations, or other large leisure, hospitality and mixed use schemes. Arup’s wide ranging experience in all these sectors means we approach retail projects understanding the wider context, the stakeholder management issues and can foresee issues before they happen.

Arup recognises that every retail client also has their own agenda and priorities. Our collaborative global skills network ensures international brands can achieve these goals and produce consistent retail experiences worldwide. For example, our international team were able to help clothing giant Zara to simultaneously deliver new stores in Melbourne, Rome, Oporto and Barcelona.


Read our latest thinking

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Ready for tomorrow’s customer

In the era of the always-on digital customer, there are new pressures on retail estates to offer seamlessly connected, digital-physical experiences and to present goods in new ways. The move towards omni-channel retailing and place-making have a direct impact on the way we design retail schemes. Read our Future of Retail report, below, to learn more about what’s driving change in the retail sector.

We also support retailers with research and new ideas. The Crown Estate wanted to improve the consumer experience on Regent Street in Central London, and our public realm research showed that a shared consolidation centre could reduce lorry to store traffic by 85%. Our proposed scheme also provided attractive storage cost savings for local retailers like Banana Republic and Gap.