PUBLIC SPACE VS. SHOPPING MALL IN CONSUMERIST CULTURE

Text topic: Critical History of Transforming Belgrade Public Spaces - from the End of the 18th Century to the Beginning of the 21st Century

Text author: Александра Ђукић и Марија Цветковић

In this paper shopping malls are considered as a representative of modern consumer spaces and observed as places of interaction between the surrounding environment and the stakeholders, as well as places of their mutual indoor interaction. The idea of a shopping centre is the idea of compressing and intensifying a public space by placing all the necessary facilities under one roof. In this way, by providing access to all the necessary facilities, the need of the shopper to return to everyday life is lessened, shopping becomes a recreational activity and the shopping mall becomes a shelter. The aim of this paper is to compare the preferences consumers have towards shopping malls and public spaces, by determining consumers’ opinion on the (dis) advantages of the shopping malls over features of a city centre. The basic goal of the research is to improve the knowledge and experiences in an architectural research through exploring of the mutual relations between the user, architecture and the space. The paper aims to analyse the relationship between architectural creativity and broader socio-cultural changes caused by the commercialization of a modern city.