Demalling, remalling, its all falling

Abstract

Victor Gruen's reliance on architecture of consumer consumption to construct the "crystallization points" of social, cultural life in the suburbs has failed. We see through history the decline of architectural quality and importance given to public space. (By the time we get to Bedford NH in 68 it's really bad.) Gruen's principles of introversion and enclosure are discredited for the production of public space. Yet, public space has a very limited existence in America today (stations, museums, parks, churches). Gruen's dream of bringing European city living to America has long faded. But Americans do engage in leisure, in fact more than ever. The twist is that these are essentially private, individual activities. This suggests that to make public space useful for everyday leisure there could be such a thing as a private (as in intimacy not ownership) public space. The mall is flipped. The original exterior walls are retained, supported, and buttressed as a vital register and material action point for the reversal. Working through Debord in Society of the Spectacle, this thesis highlights the structures of pseudo needs and desires created by our self-justifying economy of consumption. It serves to make clear our unconscious dependence and thus break it.