There are several factors that need to be considered before starting to design a food court, the first factor is what type of building it will be located in.

A large suburban shopping center will require a different design from a smaller shopping center located in the CBD, where most of the foot traffic occurs between 12 and 2 p.m., which will also be different from an airport food court, where time can also be a limitation. with various peaks occurring at different times. The “setting” of the food court will influence its size, shape and location of the area within the building.

The size of a food court It is generally bounded by two main measurable elements: a proportion of the leasable space in the building and the area of ​​influence of the development, which must be taken into account in the first design concept. There are other non-quantifiable factors that will also influence the project, such as planned extensions and mix variations that will be considered from day one. With some historic activities in the retail industry facing drastic reductions in business income and store area, young women’s clothing is rapidly losing space due to online transactions and other activities are disappearing Hospitality and entertainment are options that landlords will consider to fill in the gaps.

Location of a food court: Take an airport, where you have some time to kill, either waiting for your flight or your arrival. After walking a long way from the car park and checking the arrival and departure screens, customers often wander around a bit, stroll through the traditional bookstore, t-shirt shop, or gift and souvenir shop before going through the door and waiting. . Since food courts attract more customers than traditional retail stores and offer seating, it would be unwise to locate them in front of departure or arrival gates as it would keep customers away from other stores, reducing revenue and , consequently, the rents. It would undoubtedly also contribute to creating congestion in key areas of the airport. Spreading people evenly through a transportation hub helps with safety, air conditioning balance, and comfortable transit. The same basic rules apply to shopping malls and the big difference would be: customers don’t usually have two main destinations like an airport.

Shapes: Corridor, cul-de-sac, square, crescent, I’m sure you’ve come across food courts of all shapes and forms. The typical “broker” type with services aligned on both sides can be profitable for the developer, but is boring and uncomfortable for customers and operators. The concentration of services tends to reduce installation and maintenance costs, but can also affect the developer once a modification is necessary to accommodate a new operator. The cul-de-sac can also contribute to installation costs, but leaves no room for expansions or changes; the mall is landlocked and the only way to expand is to eliminate other leases. Our large antique square is roomy, versatile, a little more difficult to clean and expensive to install, but modifications are less painful.

In recent years and in the merger and adaptation of existing buildings into shopping malls and food courts, we have seen the trend of smaller food court clusters. Sometimes dictated by technical constraints or the inability of the building to accommodate large numbers of people in a single area, clusters have a bit of charm in that they don’t look as busy or noisy as large areas. The right mix of operators can bring similar customers together creating a friendlier and “personalized” environment.

Another rule of thumb is to try as much as possible to keep the food court scheme simple; Just avoid the “cool” ways as it can make the interaction and crossover of services complicated, which will increase the installation price and create difficult maintenance. Keep the backbone of the food court design plain and simple and the project will flow naturally.