Suburban Retail Spaces, 1st ed. 2020
Formative and Transformative Process
SpringerBriefs in Geography Series

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Language: English

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96 p. · 15.5x23.5 cm · Paperback

This book derives from observations of the contemporary built environment and its contradictions. The suburban retail spaces, specifically the suburban shopping mall, and the changes caused by them within urban organisms are the object of the investigation synthesized in the volume. The topic is very crucial for the development of the contemporary city. It constitutes at the same time a problem (large commercial structures' spread is 'destroying' traditional commercial urban fabrics) and an opportunity (shopping malls are the most vital parts of the new suburbs and can play the role of community nucleus in urban and suburban areas). Furthermore, the spread of e-commerce forces these structures to functional and spatial transformations that brings also a new relationship with the city.

The analytical reading, supplemented by generative and design projections, is carried out by using the conceptual and methodological tools of urban morphology, specifically those of the typological processual approach. From this specific point of view, the suburban shopping mall is read as an organism (a complex system characterized by mutual solidarity and interdependence among component elements) in itself, and as a sub-organisms belonging to the largest territorial organism.

The book is intended to offer, to operators, scholars, researchers, professionals and students, a reading and design method, to interpret an important aspect of the contemporary built environment by analyzing the suburban commercial space case. It offers at the same time a model applicable to other specific not-commercial cases, to defining paths for further research and design developments.

Chapter 1 - Methodological introduction, research structure & state of the art
1.1. A method for studying the retail space
1.2. Research structure
1.3 State of the art
Chapter 2 - Suburban shopping mall as Urban Fabric
2.1 Territorial and urban scale
2.1.1. Special commercial routes
2.1.2. Special commercial settlements
2.2. Fabric scale
2.2.1. Commercial routes
2.2.2. Commercial nodes
2.2.3 Other elements of the fabric: block, contrada, base and aggregated units
2.3. Building scale
2.3.1 Base and aggregated commercial unit
2.3.1.1 Routes
2.3.1.2 Nodes
2.3.2 Special nodal/polar commercial unit
2.3.2.1 Routes
2.3.2.2 Nodes
2.3.3 Other elements of commercial units micro-fabric at building scale: block, contrada, base and
aggregate units
Chapter 3 - Suburban commercial fabric formative process
3.1. Territorial and urban scale
3.1.1. An ancient special route: the turnpike road
3.1.2 Continuous specialization in route design and construction
3.1.3. Nodes and poles formation for the special routes network
3.2. Fabric scale
3.2.1 Formation of ‘traditional’ urban fabric on new suburban routes: miracle mile and commercial
strip
3.2.2 Route and aggregate specialization: the bypass formation
3.2.3 Mature phase: the shopping center as specialized bypassed nodal fabric
3.3. Building scale
3.3.1. Boutique specialization and special commercial unit formative process
3.3.2. Further specialization of base, aggregated and special commercial units: supermarket and
self-service fabric organization
3.4. Graphic schemes: urban and suburban commercial special fabric formative/transformative
process, with examples
3.4.1. Formative/transformative process in urban context
3.4.1.1. Examples
3.4.2. Formative/transformative process in suburban context
3.4.2.1. Examples
!3
Chapter 4 - Retail spaces Crisis and Future transformative process
4.1 Territorial and urban scale
4.2. Aggregate scale
4.4 Building scale
4.5. Local/global retail spaces today - reading & transformation
4.5.1. "Galleria Porta di Roma” Shopping center, Rome, Italy
4.5.2. "Place Sainte Foy - Place de la Cité - Place Laurier” Shopping center, Quebec City, Canada
4.5.3. Urban block specialization and knotting in San Martin de las flores/San Pedro Tlaquepaque,
Guadalajara, Mexico
4.5.4. Overlapping cities cities: Montreal and Hong Kong
Chapter 5 - Conclusions
Bibliographic references
Iconographic sources

Vincenzo Buongiorno, 1987, Architect and Ph.D. in architectural and urban morphology and design. Member of the research team in the “LPA - Laboratorio di Lettura e Progetto dell’Architettura" laboratory, DiAP - Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Italy. 

His research activity focuses on the contemporary built reality morphological interpretation, with special interest in specialistic organisms at building/urban/territorial scales, and on the design outputs that can be produced through scientific investigation. Research and teaching experiences carried out in several contexts such as Italy, Canada, Mexico, Portugal and Cyprus. Professional experience in architectural, urban, and landscape design gained in the firms: JLCG João Luis Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos and GAP Global Arquitectura Paisagista, Lisbon, Portugal.

Numerous schemes on retail spaces formation and transformation, with examples

Offers a comprehensive overview on formation and transformation dynamics of retail spaces

Example of the fruitful application of urban morphology to contemporary built