According to Wikipedia, the definition of a shopping mall is a building or set of buildings that contain a variety of retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit. However, the concept of the fully-enclosed shopping mall did not appear until the 1950s with the development of some of the most major malls in the United States. An evening spent helping a friend shop for a bed lead us to a stop-over at the Villa Arena Furniture Mall, just outside of Amsterdam.
With a central structure that housed a restaurant and escalators that moved only once they are stepped upon, the furniture mall was a place of innovative design and architecture.
Although I was amazed with the interior design, I was equally disgusted. I could not help but make some observations and question the mentality behind the construction of such a building:
How can this large a space be designed using mostly high cost materials and finishes, to be occupied only by high end furniture stores?
Where are all the shoppers on that Thursday night, the only evening the mall is opened until 21h00?
How does a place like this manage to survive?
How Amsterdam, a city as small as it is, can afford and justify such a wasted use of space purely for consumerism?
Has the Netherlands adopted the concept of the American Shopping Mall in an esthetically pleasing but yet unsuccessful manner?
Labels: Architecture, Design, Europe 2008, Netherlands
