The heritagisation of Thai luxury retail developments and the embodiment of the “Utopolis”

Abstract

The research investigates the rise of luxury retail establishments in Thailand that are redefining the luxury experience through Thai national heritage and culture. This phenomenon contradicts Thai retail developers’ convention of drawing inspirations from foreign cultures to create a sense of luxury. The process of invoking and incorporating heritage in this context is termed as “heritagisation”, representing a reversal in the industry’s practice, where the developer produces an ideal land rather than an exotic land for visitors to experience. This notion of the ideal land and metropolitan characteristics of the luxury retail development also leads to a proposed theoretical idea of the “Utopolis”. The Utopolis represents an abstract space that lurks within the physical retail space and partially appears through the design features imbued with heritage.

In order to build on the idea of the Utopolis, the research investigates two case studies: 1) ICONSIAM and 2) Central Ayutthaya, two exemplary developments in Thailand with the heritagisation of Thai culture throughout their overall environments. The research also explores existing bodies of knowledge on heritage, luxury and space. The amalgamation, adaptation and reinterpretation of existing theories from these bodies of knowledge all lead to a new theoretical framework to comprehensively view luxury retail developments with four types of theoretical spaces: the Firstspace; the Secondspace; the Thirdspace; and the Fourthspace. The Firstspace represents findings made through direct observations of the retail developments’ tangible features, while the Secondspace constitutes findings conducted via in-depth interviews to discover the developers’ intangible ideal. Additionally, focus groups with local visitors provide insights into the consumer’s perspective, validating analyses and findings made for the Firstspace and the Secondspace. The research deconstructs findings from the Firstspace and the Secondspace to socially construct the Thirdspace, the Heterotopia, and its six principles. Lastly, deconstructed findings from the Firstspace and the Secondspace, which reflect the Heterotopia, are also socially constructed to reveal the Fourthspace, the Utopolis, and its own six principles. The investigation also confirms the comprehensive methods used to design a luxury retail development with Thai heritage and the idea of Utopolis as a thematic map for developers. This research concludes that the luxury retail developments embody the Utopolis, a Utopian city.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Joanne Roberts: orcid.org/0000-0001-5337-1698

ORCID for Yuanyuan Yin: orcid.org/0000-0002-2109-0135

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