The changing form of modern shopping malls

Abstract

Retail industry strived for new ways of redevelopment at physical planning and design dimensions to mitigate the influence brought by e-commerce. The conversion from traditional over-the-counter business model to immersive shopping experience called for changing morphology of modern shopping malls. Although the quest for theories and models of creating future retail space caught the attention of academics and practitioners, design discussions on how to move into up-to-date retail built environment had not yet been fully explored. The paper is therefore to fill up the research gap by investigating on one of the most inclusive form of retail space - shopping malls, particularly those of being newly built or retrofitted within ten years in selected capital cities in China. The analysis of spatial layout of modern shopping malls revealed design preference on open-floor plan that enabled collaborative spatial relationship breaking up the boundary from within. It was evident modern shopping malls tended to produce collaborative and experiential space for diversified and personalized shopping experience. The resultant typology and morphology of survival shopping malls presented iconic, flexible and inclusive environment to accentuate experiential and immersive spatial characters. The research findings contributed to current debates on retailscape planning in three folds: evaluating spatial performance of shopping malls in major Chinese capital cities, providing design reference for emergent retail space planning, and guiding the development of commercial real estate.