Shopping Centre ~ Tutorial

What is the main role and goal of this development??
If we look specifically with retail, around the world retail centres have become iconic places in major cities. In some way this does come down to the physical size of the shopping centre and the types of outlets it has, however architecture itself can make this an interesting experience. Not feeling trapped is a good way to start! With approximately 20,000 m2 of commercial office space, up to 80 units and a shopping mall, this site could be looking at getting around 10,000+ visitors per day. From a realistic perspective, a developer has a range of aspects in which they can generate income from the site. It still will remain minimalistic in a sense but they will have lots of space to rent out or sell off making it a viable option for development. On top of this, it will hold one of the main monorail stations within the entire city which generates extra traffic to pass through each day.

World's Largest Shopping Centre ~ Dubai

The shopping centre is the one part of this assignment that has been bugging me the most. I have not given it as much thought as I have for the residential building however I do have a very strong vision for this shopping centre. My concept with this shopping centre is all about light! Light and visually having a connection of your location in regards to the outside of the Myer centre. Currently when you are inside the Myer centre, you have little connection if any with the outside world apart from some parts of the roof. I think this a vital connection which needs to be made because it makes the users feel more comfortable when being inside and they do not feel like they are lost. If they have this feeling then they will be sure to hang around for longer and possibly purchase more items! :)

When I spoke with Davor I really struggled to show exactly how this was going to work. He liked the idea and agreed with me that the Myer centre does make you feel like you are trapped inside. I wanted to try and make it feel like floating floors in the middle of the building however it was not working very well. I have some ideas of how I can still achieve the main goal. Let me sketch them!