The Spectacle of Integration : Redeeming the Mall

Abstract

The South African Architectural Landscape of the last fifty years has been characterised by mall retail development, suburban sprawl and environmental challenges. However, emerging in the 21st century are new realities due, in part, to the societal excesses of the previous decades, but also in part to the evolutionary processes in both technology and society. These new realities make it imperative that a new paradigm should be arrived at: one which can successfully integrate every aspect of urban life in such a way as to make it sustainable and relevant.

It is the object of this dissertation to consider existing public typologies which frame paradigms and respond architecturally to the need of a new paradigm. This response takes into account not only societal expectations for retail delivery, but also incorporate a sensitivity to the environment so as to enhance rather than disturb the integration of public space with the locale for future generations.