Shiny shopping: this Vancouver shopping mall reworks commercial and cultural stereotypes.South of downtown Vancouver with its soaring high-rises and snow-capped Snow´-capped` a. 1. Having the top capped or covered with snow; as, snow-capped mountains s>. Adj. 1. mountains, the city peters out into the murky flatlands
Flatlands is a type of terrain similar to savanna and grassland. and flood plain of the Fraser river Fraser River River, south-central British Columbia, Can. Rising in the Rocky Mountains near Yellowhead Pass, it flows northwest and south nearly to the U.S. border. It then turns west through the Coast Mountains in a spectacular canyon to empty into the Strait of Georgia delta. Here, rolling acres Rolling Acres is a shopping district in Akron, Ohio. Planning for the area began in 1960s with Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland real estate company and the powerful Buchholzer family, whose previous endeavours involved financing much of the Chapel Hill Mall area. of suburban housing are interspersed with huge shopping malls. As in most North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. cities, the car is king, so people drive to their local malls to shop and socialise Verb 1. socialise - take part in social activities; interact with others; "He never socializes with his colleagues"; "The old man hates to socialize" socialize , but the architecture is generally unimpressive. Opened last year, the new Aberdeen Centre in Richmond by Bing Thom Architects is a lively and laudable attempt to confound the stereotype of the banal mall box and engender some sense of place and civic spirit. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Named after the fishing village in Hong Kong as opposed to the dour Scottish city. Aberdeen serves and targets Richmond's affluent Chinese community. Since the mid '80s, Pacific Rim proximity and the Canadian government's open door policy has stimulated successive waves of immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. from Hong Kong (and latterly China), and the industrious, prosperous Asian community is now very much part of Vancouver life. The Aberdeen Centre is the brainchild of energetic entrepreneur Thomas Fung, who, as local architecture commentator Trevor Boddy notes, 'may be the closest Vancouver has to a business-builder who is guided by vision and intuition, not tired pro-formas and business school bromides'. In a career that has encompassed everything from kung-fu film production to property development, Fung's masterstroke mas·ter·stroke n. An achievement or action revealing consummate skill or mastery: a masterstroke of diplomacy. See Synonyms at feat1. has been to redefine the commercial and cultural dynamics of the traditional cluttered, rackety Asian mall into a more upmarket up·mar·ket adj. Appealing to or designed for high-income consumers; upscale: "He turned up in well-cut clothes . . . and upmarket felt hats" New Yorker. East-West fusion, given lucid expression by Bing Thom's inventive architecture. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Thom is no stranger to challenging commercial programmes; his mixed-use scheme in Surrey, some 40 minutes' drive from Vancouver, was an imaginative attempt to make an urban and social focus in sprawling suburbia (AR September 2003). At Aberdeen, the idea is to create a building that engages with its context and brings a sense of its internal life to the surrounding streets. This connection is made and emphasised through an undulating, luminous mural of coloured glass that wraps around the building, flowing with the curves of the streets and revealing the active life of the shops, market place, and restaurants within. The glass was tested through full-scale mockups in Thom's office to achieve a convincing balance of colour, transparency and reflection. With 380 000sq ft of retail space and 255 stores, the new Aberdeen Centre has become a focal point focal point n. See focus. in Richmond's downtown core. At only three storeys high, its scale is somehow more manageable and inviting, humanised by the seductive curves of the kaleidoscopic facade. Inside, the deadening hermeticism Hermeticism or Hermetism Italian Ermetismo Modernist poetic movement originating in Italy in the early 20th century. Works produced within the movement are characterized by unorthodox structure, illogical sequences, and highly subjective language. of the typical mall is dispelled by contact with the exterior and the welcome presence of daylight, which floods in through great conical funnels punched into the hovering roof. Unusually, there is no department store or cinema as an anchor tenant; instead, food is a key attraction. Though the quality of the architecture speaks for itself, recasting the traditional Asian mall has not been without its perceptual and commercial difficulties. As Trevor Boddy again observes, 'Thomas Fung has achieved something with his Aberdeen Centre, but the marketplace jury is still out on just what it is: high-end fashion mall; el-cheapo Neo-Chinatown emporium with better visuals; e-business showroom; the ultimate gathering place of the new Vancouver; or a retailing chimera?' As with any new idea, only time will tell if there is a genuine public appetite for the Fung/Thom mall model. Aptly, however, the Chinese characters for the new Aberdeen Centre don't allude to its geography, but instead can be translated as 'Shiny, trendy place'. C.S. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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