On a recent Saturday in Edmonton my grandson and I went shopping in the Kingsway Mall. Both of us are familiar with malls though I try to avoid them on weekends. This mall is near my grandson’s school but he said that he didn’t go there much. When we were mostly through our shopping (and happy with what we’d bought) my grandson (who is 14) said, “Why do they build malls the same everywhere? Not only the same shops, but the same flooring and so on.” By this time the din of too many shoppers and usual ambient sound of a mall had really gotten to me and I was quite tired. I began to think about how a mall could be a more pleasant place. Plants incorporated into the mall, and outside green space incorporated into the food court were two options that occurred to me.
After getting home and crashing on the couch for a while, I began to research malls online for noise, and eco friendliness. There have been studies about the effect of noise in malls both on people who work there and people who visit. Headaches, irritability, tiredness are some of the effects. Long term I can’t imagine having to put up with that noise day after day, week after week your working life.
I came across a few malls around the world that have attempted to incorporate protection of the environment into their designs. Mostly these had to do with saving energy on heating and cooling, etc. But what about the people? Wouldn’t malls that were better designed for us bring more people to spend time and shop? Especially as online shopping increases.
Some malls that I found on line incorporate a lot of plants. Others include water features, even small waterfalls. The picture I saw of Park Toreo Mall in Mexico City appears quite stunning, incorporating the outdoors, with lots of trees, light and fountains.
Do malls have to have such hard surface floors and walls? Perhaps they’re the easiest to clean and maintain, but why couldn’t there be more wood (what about flexible bamboo) or even areas of grass plots, dirt and tough perennial plants? Why can’t food courts be built with more privacy, niches, sound proofing? More seating areas screened by plants in malls in general. Noise baffling tiles and other techniques.
Later in the week I went twice to the Southgate Centre Mall, not on a weekend. I’ve liked it ever since my son and family lived in UofA family housing 20 minutes away. It’s a smaller mall and mostly not as busy as others. This time I found pleasant changes. They’d added a London Drugs on a second floor area. I like London Drugs for their electronics, variety in other things (though they no longer carry wooden suit hangers, at least not there; and no Swiss Ricola honey lemon with echinacea throat lozenges,which I’ve had difficulty finding in the past in Edmonton). But they’d created more seating areas and a lower area where a Dollar Store used to be that seems to be used for photo ops (Halloween/harvest theme this time) and more seating.
I don’t go to malls very often, and will continue that. I prefer smaller shops in my neighbourhood when I’m at home.
As more and more people, even those who aren’t that tech savvy, shop on line, what is the future of malls? Could malls evolve to become community and cultural centres as well as places to eat and shop? Smaller malls? Indoor/outdoor malls? Bioclimatic malls?
I’d like to hear from people who have experienced malls that are more pleasant than the usual. How and where do you shop?
