Black Friday at the Agora

A Story of Retail Architecture and Capitalism

Student report (2022)

Authors

M.L.E. White Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

Phoebus I. Panigyrakis Teachers of Practice / A - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2022 Mateo White
Shopping Postmodernism Capitalism Rem Koolhaas Frederic Jameson
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Published Date

14-04-2022

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

This essay contextualises and analyses the development of shopping centres in the 20th century by their connection to postmodernism and capitalism, through Frederic Jameson’s theories on the advent of the architectural style and cultural movement, positioning the act of shopping as a cultural production of the economic system. Using Jameson's tools for the interpretation of postmodern creations, a connection can be established between the architectural designs of shopping centres and the cultural productions of capitalism, identifying traits of depthlessness, pastiche, subject fragmentation, liminal space, mechanised circulation, and the waning of affect in case studies of shopping malls in The Netherlands.

The case studies include the ‘Passage’ in The Hague (1885 to compare neoclassical and contemporary juxtapositions, the ‘Lijnbaan’ in Rotterdam (1953) as an example of Modernist space, the ‘Heuvel’ in Eindhoven (1992) as an example of postmodern planning, and ‘Westfield Mall of the Netherlands’ in The Hague (2017) as example of sustainability themed mega malls. These examples provide a timeline for the evolution of shopping malls in the 20th century, but more importantly as physical illustrations for the relationship between architectural theories on shopping and the cultural production of Postmodern space.