Did you know that Victor Gruen, the original designer of the American shopping mall, was a utopian? I will quote an article I found on the blog Reurbanist.
"In Vienna, Victor Gruen was involved in socialist politics before fleeing to New York to escape Nazi Germany. In perhaps the ultimate of ironies, he initially envisioned shopping centres as a utopian communal space that brought people together. Developers found his ideas interesting, but had a hard time securing financing. One of his first major projects, Northland Center in Detroit, incorporated many elements of Victor's vision including public gardens, a bank, post office, auditoriums, artwork, and fountains."
Now I'm not a socialist by any means, but I could totally get down with the idea of a shopping mall design for things other than shopping, like a public square/plaza or library. I always thought malls looked really cool and futuristic and wondered why their design wasn't utilized in more settings. There's a reason I'm a fan of the vaporwave aesthetic. The article goes on-
"Interestingly, we have recently begun to see a lot of shopping centres returning to some of the utopian roots espoused by Victor Gruen as a way of solidifying consumer support in competitive markets. Increasingly, this competition is now coming from online shopping, a trend that some speculate will force malls to reposition themselves as centres of the community."
With all the dead malls in America, it'd sure be a shame to just tear them down. Perhaps we could renovate them into the more public square type places that Victor envisioned. That'd be a refreshing concept after all these lockdowns and a nice place for everyone to go. Imagine a library with a mall design, that'd be rad.
What do you think?
