Can shopping centres be used to regenerate cities?

Posted by JJ on Saturday, November 8, 2008

BDOnline.co.uk - Yes, directly and as a catalyst, says Hammerson’s director of retail development Robin Dobson, but architect Ptolemy Dean prefers a return to traditional streets…

One wonders if the shopping centre is an equally ‘effective’ agent in the continued development of cities, for example, in Asia; many times the answer would be a resounding no; given the already popular-acceptance of street life amongst the din and buzz of the quintessential Asian metropolis. Just look at Ho Chi Minh, Bali, Hanoi..amongst other towns where the street is much preferred to the mall. Hong Kong and Singapore, although famously familiar to the shopping centre typology, have malls that are fashioned and densified to the point of virtual “street-ness”, if there ever was such a word.

Read more here to see what the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ factions represent in this discussion on the pertinence of the shopping centre as a regenerative typology in the United Kingdom.