Shopping center architecture
Introduction
A shopping center, also known as shopping, mall or mol,[1][2] is a construction that consists of one or several buildings, usually large in size, that house services, premises and commercial offices grouped together in a specific space, concentrating a greater number of potential customers within the premises.
A shopping center is designed as a collective space with different stores; In addition, it includes places for leisure, recreation and fun, such as cinemas or food fairs within the premises. Although it is in private hands, commercial premises are generally rented and sold independently, so there are several owners of said premises, who must pay maintenance services to the builder or the managing entity of the shopping center.[3].
The first known collections of merchants under one roof are the public markets, dating back to ancient times, and the covered markets, bazaars and souks of the Near East. In Paris, some 150 covered passages were built between the end of the century and 1850, and in the century a large number of commercial porticoes were built throughout Europe&action=edit&redlink=1 "Arcade (architecture) (not yet drafted)"). In the United States, the widespread use of the automobile in the 1920s gave rise to the first shopping centers of a few dozen stores that included car parking. Beginning in 1946, large open-air department store centers (sometimes as a collection of adjacent commercial properties under different owners), and then enclosed shopping centers were built, beginning with Victor Gruen's Southdale Center") near Minneapolis in 1956.
In English-speaking countries, a shopping mall is a type of commercial area, an American term that originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but which in the late 1960s began to be used as a generic term for large shopping centers anchored by department stores, especially closed centers. [4][5] Many US shopping centers are currently in serious decline ("dead malls") or have closed. The most successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiences,[6] have added large stores as primary tenants, or are specialized formats: power centers&action=edit&redlink=1 "Power center (retail) (not yet written), lifestyle centers", outlet centers, and festival marketplaces"). Currently, there are approximately 1,050 shopping centers in the United States, which is an excessive amount of floor space for a very digitally advanced country. Montreal and Toronto unite large adjacent commercial spaces in the city center.