Spatiotemporal compression of the urban experience

https://issuu.com/dan_sof/docs/mall

Theoritical Thesis NTUA 2012

Nowadays, architecture is limited to follow the requirements imposed by the economic use and the consumerism. It creates independent spaces, unrelated to the environment, which disregard the public space and seek introspection. These spaces, not only don’t include the public space in their operation but also create an artificial experience of public space for the economical benefit. It is a transfer from the historical and cultural environment of the city to the uniformed, standardized and globalized culture of advertising, image and consumerism.

The shopping center is an element of the consumer society, it expresses the concepts of the new western civilization and it promotes new standards of behavior and everyday life. As part of the modern society, it listens to the needs of the individual, it maximizes them, it promises their satisfaction and it creates new ones so that the individual becomes committed to eternal demand.

The aim of this assignment is to explore the model of the shopping center and the imitation of public space within it. These new kind of public spaces, which exist under strict conditions of supervision, control and protection, are a new reality in the city suburbs. The transfer of public life from the public space of the city to
these artificial spaces is a new form of socialization which aims to create new generations of consumers under the new promoted standards. In this way, the new model of living disorients the public role of the individual.

-Spatiotemporal compression of the urban experience through the model of the mall-

Authors: Sofroni Danai, Sotiropoulou Antonia