<
https://theconversation.com/the-us-invented-shopping-malls-but-china-is-writing-their-next-chapter-220181>
"On a recent research trip to China, I wandered through the Oasis Mall in
suburban Shanghai. Like many Chinese shopping centers, this complex was filled
with empty stores that reflected the end of China’s 30-year-long economic
expansion. But there also were surprises.
Along a stretch of the mall’s interior walkway, a cluster of parents and
grandparents sat on chairs. They were looking through a plate glass window,
watching a dozen 5- to 7-year-old girls practice ballet steps, carefully
following their teacher’s choreography. A space initially designed for retail
had been turned into a dance studio.
From 1990 through 2020, large, shiny shopping malls embodied China’s
spectacular economic growth. They sprouted in cities large and small to meet
consumer demand from an emerging middle class that was keen to express its
newfound affluence. These centers look familiar to American eyes, which isn’t
surprising: U.S. architectural firms built 170 malls in China during this
period.
Like their U.S. counterparts, many Chinese malls have fallen on hard times. The
COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of online shopping have devastated foot traffic,
leaving the nation with a huge overhang of retail space. But many Chinese malls
are being re-imagined by owners and users as palaces of experience – civic
areas for communities to meet and interact, with new configurations of public
and private space.
As a longtime urban policy scholar, I was fascinated by the new uses I saw for
malls in China. In my view, these experiments could become models for new,
creative uses of retail space in the U.S., where the mall was invented."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
