URBAN HUB- REIMAGINING SHOPPING MALLS

Abstract

In a society where technology and social media progressively tend to isolate people, social interaction becomes more and more important. Whether it takes the form of ancient marketplaces or modern shopping malls, commercial activities have been the primary means of social interaction for thousands of years. In order to provide the fundamental human requirements, a new type of social interaction is required. Shopping mall had somehow functioned as a public space for social interaction. But the rising ecommerce platform, changing customer preferences, demographics and growing urban needs, thousands of shopping malls are closing or losing identity globally. So, this storm of global trends is coming together to cause malls to change the role they play in people’s lives and rejuvenate social interaction. As commercial and business activities are gearing towards ecommerce and many prioritizing it, these pressures have pushed conventional commercial design to innovate. It has been important to draw consumers attention to the brand through the spatial experience, either through surprising elements, digital and interactive space tools or, unifying consistently within the brand stores to continue the offline commercial experience. Present demands more than just passively performing commercial activities. They have to become an engaging and socializing place and cultural hotspots where people and community can experience multiple things, provide recreation, experience and function as a community and leisure hub. Considering the degrading urban context of public space, the requirements of these hubs are not just limited to economic existence but must have social ecological, psychological, political, symbolic and aesthetic role and function as a much-needed public space in urban context. This thesis seeks to explore the new approaches in which shopping mall can be designed considering the present and future demands of various convenience and experience and how it will help create much needed human centric built environment keeping architecture at the center.