Introduction - The Shopping Centre 1943-2013: The Rise and Demise of a Ubiquitous Collective Architecture

Introduction - The Shopping Centre 1943-2013: The Rise and Demise of a Ubiquitous Collective Architecture

Gosseye, J.
Avermaete, T.L.P.

Architecture and The Built Environment

Architecture

2015-01-01

In his seminal essay ‘Public Spaces, Collective Spaces,’ which was published in 1992, Spanish architect and critic Manuel de Solà-Morales suggested that the civic, architectural, urban and morphological richness of contemporary cities resides in their collective spaces that are not strictly public or private, but both simultaneously.1 De Solà-Morales described these places as ‘the ambiguous spaces where the public form of our cities is played’ and encouraged architects to resist ceding the battle over the design of shopping malls, vacation centres, parking lots and cinema complexes to commercial logic and developer standards. De Solà-Morales argued that these spaces warrant architects’ attention, even if only for their ubiquity, volume and massive use, as he pleaded for a shift – both in terms of design and research – away from the standard, safe ‘subsidized urbanity’ to more slippery, less evident and (arguably) more interesting areas.

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TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment

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The Shopping Centre 1943-2013: The Rise and Demise of a Ubiquitous Collective Architecture

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(c) 2015 Gosseye, J.
Avermaete, T.L.P.