Shop: An Investigative Praxis into the Contextualization of an Architectural Standard

Abstract

For the drug that is consumerism, the 'shop' is both the initiator and rehabilitator. In a society where needs and wants are indistinguishable, trade and exchange becomes inherent to a lifestyle in the contemporary urban environment. As a result of this, many of our actions are focused on maximising the measure of productivity over time. In a search for efficiency, quantity supersedes quality as shopping infiltrates numerous aspects of the everyday. This thesis is an investigation into the embodiment of shopping: the mall. In understanding the significance of commerce in the urban condition, the mall plays an important role in our communities. Although it operates on a highly optimized model, the mall is currently a reduced, saturated application of its original precedent. Due to its prefabrication, the mall resorts to a homogenized 'pancaking' of layers. The project is detailed through the Westfield Mall (277 Broadway, Newmarket), in an understanding of the original Gruen model and additionally, in relationship to Situationist theories. The current condition of the mall is critiqued by engaging with psychogeography and the derive in order to generate an alternative 'mall type'. This proposition is concerned with an enrichment that exists beyond the monetary value of the financial transaction. The project is addressed with a parallel intention - an understanding of practice, wherein the modus operandi of the designer performs as the generator of the project. This is an investigation into an authorial methodology; a process which is concerned with the intertwined relationship between the body, the mind and the artefact. The definition of praxis is articulated through the notions of 'loop' and 'shift'; the making and reflecting; the known and unknown. This parallel is focused on a way of thinking, doing, and seeing as a means to understand and define personal methods architectural production. Thus, as an amalgamation, practice informs project just as project informs practice - one does not exist without the other.