Week 6: Site Specific | The Irvine Spectrum

Growing up in Orange County, the Spectrum has always had a distinctly different personality than the other major central Orange County malls. South Coast Plaza was the larger indoor mall complex where the families frequented. Fashion Island was the high-end outdoor mall where the housewives of Newport and Laguna flocked. But Spectrum has always had a more casual and youth-oriented design. Even with its many recent renovations, the shopping center has a more lively look and more dramatic lighting. The overall design of the center successfully blends a happening nightlife feel with the ubiquitous Irvine Company property aesthetic. In certain areas, new design accents utilize dynamic lighting and in many cases water or mist elements to add further excitement effect. When I last visited the Spectrum, this plaza area was completely open. But since then they have added an interesting combination of landscaping, lighting, and mist to inject more spectacle into the shopping experience.

Miniso is a Japan-based brand which sells various household goods such as cosmetics, toys, and kitchenware. I felt that the lighting design for this store was a miss. The majority of the store was flushed out in basic white light, while the accented areas were logos around the high border of the room. This lighting concept stole the shopper's focus up and away from the store's products and actually made it somewhat difficult to notice anything else in the store.

Cucina Enoteca is an Italian inspired kitchen and wine shop. I felt that this design effectively utilized the lighting to create different spacial areas, levels, and textures. While the dim overhead lighting was needed for the partons dinning, the unique choices of fixtures gave an interesting architecture to the room and the intensity of the lighting. The other interesting choice was the use of backdrop lighting along the back kitchen wall and the brighter lighting in the exposed open kitchen. It helped guide the viewers focus thought the space and created a separation between the intimate dining area and the bright and active kitchen.