Focal Point Of A Shopping Mall Cultural Studies Essay

Focal Point Of A obtain gist Cultural Studies EssayShopping inwardnessfieldfield is inevitably the main focal point in some Malaysia city and obtain has beseem the Malaysian favorite pastime during weekends. Moreover, series of mega sales and discount events have encouraged the act of consumption, turning the obtain center become one of vital element in our flavor-style.The constituent of shop center is piecemeal replacing existing in the universe eye(predicate) infinite in many modern Asian cities where the people do non have macrocosm parks or uncoileds to hangout. Instead, a weekend family affair may undecomposed spend in the movie theatre or restaurants inside obtain mall. Therefore, obtain center is evolving into a new force whose impact should not be neglected.Nowadays, a new kind of shopping center known as the modus vivendi center began emerging in Malaysia. According to International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the modus vivendi center feature s an open-air decoratorure, typically high-end retail merchants, may or may not include back stores, and has a large concentration of dining and pleasure facilities. The properties atomic number 18 usually well landscaped and walk outside artwork, music, and trams or trolleys for on-site transportation. It is intended to support a shopping as entertainment mindset and has become highly popular in affluent communities. We can see the emerge of modus vivendi malls in outstanding Kuala Lumpur especially suburban Kuala Lumpur such as 1Mont Kiara, The Curve, Jaya One, Wangsa Walk, Sunway Giza, Alamanda Putrajaya and the list goes on.Originated in US, lifestyle center combining the tralatitious retail functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities in a town squ ar or main street setting have become habitual in affluent suburban atomic number 18as and ar now one of the most popular retail formats in US. However, in Malaysia, the professionals atomic number 18 keener to realise it as Lifestyle Mall since most of them argon indoor setting but incorporated with alfresco walking mall. Thus, hereinafter, I will expend the term lifestyle mall in describing the Malaysia context.2.0 Problem narrativeThe ontogeny of lifestyle malls poses interesting question for urbanism in Malaysia. Cities in the Malaysia especially Greater Kuala Lumpur argon characterized by sprawling suburban, which a pattern of development being criticized by several theorists. According to Jane Jacobs in her give The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she arguing that modernist planning policies that promoted highway construction has been destroyed many existing inner-city communities (Jacobs, 1961). After that, others writers such as Joel Garreau, Dolores Hayden and Robert Bruegmann agreed that suburban sprawl occurred to the destructive of urban life in America (Garreau, 1991 Hayeden Wark, 2004 Bruegmann, 2006).Further more, most of the critics on the rapid suburbaniza tion that occurred in America as well as Malaysia, is the changing of urban and fond fabric in several ways, both physically and socially. According to Harriet Tregoning, he states that cars have become necessary to working, shopping and financial backing in suburban cities. The growing dependence on auto supples necessitated by low density, sprawling land use has important implications. People living in more sprawling regions tend to drive greater distance, own more cars, breathe more polluted air, mettle a greater risk of traffic fatalities and walk and use transit less.One of the most common arguments is that suburban development isolated residential areas from the moneymaking(prenominal) areas and working comes that divine serviced them, thus creating sprawling, inharmonious ripple of single(a) family houses, shopping centers and office parks across the suburban landscape (Duanny, 2000 Kunstler, 1993). Many of the physical and social elements that effected the spirit of the city civic art, civic life as well as familiar farming were lost in the process of spatial segregation (Garreau, 1991 Duanny, 2000 Hayeden Wark, 2004 Bruegmann, 2006). Suburbanization tends to isolate large groups of society preventing the contact amongst diverse members of the population that is common in more handed-down urban settings. According to Fellmann et all, the upwardly mobile resident of the city-younger, wealthier and better educated- took advantage of the automobile and highway to leave the central city. The poorer and older people were unexpended behind. The central cities and suburbs became increasingly differentiated. Krueger and Gibbs stated that Suburbanization produces enormous obstacles to the creation of a sense of identity with the neighborhood of residence, since the colligate generated are minimal and the lack of social ties makes the construction of a sense of belonging to a place very difficult (Krueger Gibbs, 2007). Duany writes It is difficu lt to recognise a segment of the population that does not suffer in some way from the lifestyle imposed by contemporary suburban development (Duany, 2000). From a social perspective, most critics argue that in suburban area, the private realm is privileged over that of the creation. Thus, without adequate unexclusive space, in that location is a severe shortage of venues where social interaction can take place because sharing the public realm, people have their opportunity to interact, and thus come to realize that they have little reason to alarm each other. (Duany, 2000)The evolution of shopping center development in Kuala Lumpur began with the opening of the first purpose build supermarkets and emporiums such as Weld Supermarket, Yuyi Emporium and so on. The first shopping complex, Ampang Park arrived in 1973, followed by Campbell Complex, Wisma Stephen, Wisma Central, Sun Complex, Pertama Complex, Wisma MPI and Angkasaraya. These shopping complexes are essentially retail developments set within a podium relegate of a shopping cum office development. Anchor tenants are nonexistent and the complexes have poor amenities and lay facilities. The retail outlets are generally small and the layout design is poor with little matter-of-fact circulation and ineffectual use of space.CDocuments and SettingsyshearMy Documentspublic spacepertama.bmpPertama Complex in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman is among the first genesis shopping complexes in Kuala Lumpur.The second generation of 80s shopping complexes were purpose built shopping complexes such as Sungai Wang center of attention (1978), Bukit Bintang Plaza (1979), Kota Raya (1982), Yow Chuan Plaza (1983), Imbi Plaza (1985), KL Plaza (1985), The Mall (1987), The Weld (1988) and Pudu Plaza (1989). These complexes enjoy good accessibility as they are located on main passageways or at busy junctions of arterial or main roads. vast parking lots are provided and easy entrance and exit points are strategically loca ted for the restroom of shoppers who travel by car.CDocuments and SettingsyshearMy Documentspublic spaceb_1sungeiwang.jpgSg Wang Plaza, one of the popular shopping centers situated in Bukit Bintang shopping regulate of Kuala Lumpur.The shopping complexes have much better design and the adoption of a balanced tenant fluff has taken stage in the overall planning, leasing and design of the complexes. The size, distribution and layout of the retail lots are overly carefully be after and designed. Anchor tenants such as Metrojaya, AEON Jusco, Isetan, Parkson are used as magnets and are purposely located to facilitate the flow of shoppers in the complexes.With rapid economic growth and urbanization in the Klang Valley, a wide range of social and economic factors have combined to influence the trends in shopping center development. The third generation of shopping centers, from the 1990s to the present, has seen the birth of new giants, with the size put the achiever of competition. Mega sized centers with vast retail space, often spanning more than two million square feet and with multiple anchor tenants, multiple mini anchors and a host of shop lots. Huge car parks accommodating more than 3000 vehicles are common, with a network of internal roads and access to main roads and highways.These mega shopping centers are usually located in the suburbs and they include Sunway Pyramid, mid(prenominal) Valley Megamall, One Utama Shopping Center, and Tropicana City Mall and so on. Perhaps being huge assures success. All the mega sized shopping centers have their individual corner markets and are thriving even facing competition with each others. For example, Sunway Pyramid integrated with its own planned resort Sunway Lagoon. Without exception, all shopping centers must have good or exceptional merchandise mix and strong retail attractions in order to succeed in the face of stiff competition.CDocuments and SettingsyshearMy Documentspublic spacemid valley.jpgMid Vall ey Megamall, the Malaysias largest suburban shopping center with 3 anchor tenants located in Bangsar.The trend is touching towards hypermarkets, which may be supplanting some of the old pop and mom style grocery business. Hypermarkets are typically huge stand alone supermarket and department store type retail outlets. Carrefour, Tesco, Giant are mushrooming over the suburban cities throughout Peninsular Malaysia. For example, Giant, the largest retailer in Malaysia are currently operates 107 stores nationwide and at that place are more stores opening soon. On the other hand, Tesco has operates 36 stores throughout Peninsular Malaysia to date.Giant Hypermarket, the largest retailer in Malaysia is operating more than 100 stores throughout Malaysia.The major factors which have contributed towards the emergence of suburban shopping centers and hypermarkets are repayable to the suburbanization of residential development. With limited land available for residential development in the c ity, caparison has spread to the surrounding land at the city fringes with vast space of available lands. With provision of road infrastructure, the young, mobile, rich and middle class families who demand for bigger homes and more luxurious features and better quality of living have migrated to the suburbs. Many of these residential developments have taken the form of new townships and self contained neighborhoods such as Subang Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Damansara and the list goes on. Retail followed as families continued to move from central cities to the suburbs.Besides, the increases of female tradings also lead to the emergence of suburban shopping center and hypermarkets. More females are entering the workforce which will directly sham the retailing pattern. It is because the addition of household incomes has change magnitude the purchasing power. Moreover, women engaged in full time employment have less time for shopping. Thus, it results the increase of bulk buying and reduc tion in frequency of shopping trips. However, the shopping has turned into a family affair. Thus, it is essential to provide all in one shopping activities including shopping, food, entertainment and leisure with more emphasize on convenience, comfort and family oriented attractions and entertainment.While suburban malls only served the retail needs of suburban residents, critics began to argue that they eliminated any chance communities have for possessing physical continuity on the urban fabric since they usually located along the main route (Torino, 2005). Developers of suburban malls tend to overlook the design of shopping center as a forum of public gathering and social interaction. However, the suburban malls are not public spaces at all they are designed for single purpose consumption.Victor Gruen, the architect of the first modern suburban shopping mall in United States, recognized the breakdown of traditional community bonds are driven by uncontrollable suburban sprawl. Th us, Gruen envisioned the suburban mall to serve as the new town center which is dense, mixed use environments that could take place of traditional main streets and town squares. Gruen realized that the process of suburbanization was weakening the social bonds in a society that was fostered mainly in close knit rural communities and dense urban settlements. (Torino, 2005)Gruens idea was to make shopping malls more pedestrian friendly, which he achieved by putting the entire development under one roof, with stores on two levels affiliated by escalators and fed by two-tiered parking. In the middle of the mall was a town square, which featured a garden court under a skylight, a fishpond, enormous sculpted trees, a twenty-one-foot cage change with exotic birds, balconies with hanging plants, and a caf (Gladwell, 2004). However, Gruens vision of shopping mall failed to function as town centers due to several reasons. In contrast to traditional town centers, which were extroverted, meani ng that store windows and entrances faced both the parking areas and the interior pedestrian walkways, indoor malls were introverted the exterior walls presented a blank faade, and all of the activity was focussed inward (Gladwell, 2004). According to Michael Sorkin, the design of shopping malls tends to reinforce the domestic values and physical order of suburbia, alternatively than rectify it. In his book Variations on a Theme Park, Sorkin states, Like the suburban house that rejects the sociableness of front porches and sidewalks for private back yards, malls look inward, turning their backs on the public street (Sorkin, 1992). Since most malls are located in the middle of vast parking lots set well off the street, what Sorkin refers to as pedestrian islands in an asphalt sea, their physical setting forms yet another crack in the already fragmented suburban landscape (Sorkin, 1992).Another reason why malls have failed to function as the traditional town centers that Gruen envi sioned is that they are, by and large, built for a single purpose retail. According to Kevin Mattson, Whereas in cities, towns, and villages, public space invites mixed usage and contains churches, schools, courts, theaters, civic buildings and stores, malls are exclusively commercial. Access and architecture together entreat to make buying and selling the only thinkable activities (Mattson, 2009). Mattson argues that since malls are the only public spaces left in many parts of the country, they must become more like real towns with a mixture of uses If concern is not to become the sole activity we engage in when we are in public, malls must offer alternative activities civic, cultural, athletic, political, and recreational that define us as citizens as well as consumers (Mattson, 2009).Many urban scholars have pointed to the obvious fact that shopping malls are not true public spaces, but privatized ones where centering ultimately reserves the right to limit access. In his bo ok The Right to the City Social justness and the Fight for Public Space, Don Mitchell touches on the idea that malls are exclusive places, where certain groups and behaviors are not welcome (rowdy teenagers, the homeless, and political demonstrations, for example). Mitchell also comments that malls are heavily patrolled by private security forces and are playing field to constant surveillance (Mitchell, 2003).Malcolm Voyce has noted that malls do not coincide with the need for an open and democratic public space and that their private nature limits and controls diversity (Voyce, 2006). Private ownership and restricted access, therefore, undermine the shopping malls efficacy to function as a true, democratic public space.The recent trends mark the emergence of lifestyle malls mushrooming at the suburban Klang Valley. To be named a few The Curve, the pioneer lifestyle mall in Malaysia Sunway Pyramid, Jaya One, Wangsa Walk, Alamanda Putrajaya, Axis Atrium, Sunway Giza which are oper ating SSTwo Mall, 1Mont Kiara, Subang Avenue, Citta, Setia Walk, Setia Avenue and the list goes on which are on construction to join the lifestyle demand. Therefore, it is not strange that Business Week Magazine has referred the lifestyle malls as the Shopping Center of the 21st Century.The preceding(prenominal) lifestyle malls share several commons. Design ambience reflecting a main street motif is great emphasized. The developers often cite a large emphasis on food and entertainment, elements that further contribute to the gentle wind of the project. Parking is also a major concern where it is usually arranged in structures or placed underground (Malmuth, 2005). Moreover, the inclusion of mixed uses also can be found in the quality of lifestyle malls. The inclusion of non retail uses is what sets apart lifestyle malls from other retail developments, to the extent that certain developer, such as Sime UEP Brunsfield, will claim that the word lifestyle is meaningless if residentia l component is not incorporated.The rise of lifestyle mall also raises other important questions, particularly about how and whether the shopping centers also function as public spaces. Perhaps the most important factor leading to the emergence of lifestyle malls, in time, and the focus of this thesis, is the erudition of the increasing importance of shopping centers as public spaces in suburban life. Outside of urban centers, suburbia offers very few public gathering places. Therefore, strolling through suburban malls has become the favorite pastime during weekends. It is however important to realize that the main concern of shopping center is still concern about commercial activities. While the fact is, people do not only shop in a mall, they do hangout and socialize in the same time. Besides, there are also critics on the suburban shopping malls that reinforce unsustainable suburban sprawl. Some argue that lifestyle centers represent part of an effort to reduce the cause of su burban sprawl, through the reintroduction of traditional mixed use setting. Other argues that they are only tools to earn since they are privately owned, carefully controlled. Therefore, do lifestyle malls truly represent better forms of public space than stuffy malls? Developers of lifestyle malls seem to have realized that improved retail design can act as a forum for social activity as well as a source of increased revenue (Torino, 2005). If so, are they alternatives to malls as models for public space in suburban? Do lifestyle malls represent a new typology of quasi public space? And how public are those lifestyle malls?3.0 AimThis research aims to examine the emergence of lifestyle malls of their ability to function as public space.4.0 Objectives4.1 To examine the publicness of lifestyle malls.4.2 To determine the perception of shoppers experiences towards the function of lifestyle malls.4.3 To recognize the lifestyle malls as a new form of public space in suburban.5.0 Resear ch Questions5.1 How public are lifestyle malls?5.2 How do the shoppers perceive the lifestyle malls role?5.3 How lifestyle malls represent a new form of public space in suburban?6.0 sketch of MethodologyTo answer these questions, a variety of methods will be applied. The overall methods are qualitative.Research which is in general based on journals, articles and others.Attempt to examine the characteristic of public space in order to identify the function of lifestyle malls as public space in the context of ideas by theorists such as George Varna, Steve Tiesdell, Adam Tyndall, Kevin Lynch, W. Lewis Dijkstra, Jan Gehl as well as Project of Public Space.Interviews with planners and developers, member of Malaysian Association for Shopping and Highrise Complex ManagementBrief discussion regarding the trend of shopping centers in Malaysia, planning and development of selected lifestyle malls.Surveys of shoppers experience at lifestyle malls.Survey on the perceptions of shoppers towards lifestyle malls as social focus and public space.ObservationObservation on the physical design of lifestyle mall, degree to the mixed tenants and how the public use the spaces.7.0 Structure of the ThesisChapter 1Suburban development in Greater Kuala Lumpur, trend of shopping center in MalaysiaChapter 2Discussion on the role of public space and how lifestyle mall locomote into the context of public spaceChapter 3Case StudiesChapter 4Survey results obtained at each lifestyle malls, observation on the quality of public space, design, level of mixed use, community events sponsored by each lifestyle mallChapter 5Concludes with a discussion of results and implications of the research.8.0 Expected OutputThe expected output will beAble to assess whether lifestyle mall in Greater Kuala Lumpur can function as public space.Able to determine that lifestyle mall can be another form of public space in suburban Kuala Lumpur.Able to recognize the characteristics of lifestyle mall that contribute to creation of public space.