Shopping centre and urban regeneration: reflections on the potential for a synergic relation

摘要

Shopping Centres are usually related with the process of suburban growth and urban sprawl. Key element and urban reference of the motorway cities, these semiotic symbols for the consumption’s life standard, shopping centres are also considered the executioners of traditional commerce. Urban centres on the main Portuguese cities suffer a chronicle problem of abandon and desertification, mostly related with housing prices and inefficient policies on urban regeneration, to which the local commerce abandon is collateral. Considering the urban essence as a social happening, where public and private activities coexist in a complex and intricate structure, where the hierarchy of space and building is sewed by the common citizen necessities – shelter, food, work and leisure – it is reasonable to assume that the commercial activities which provide the software or interface for this basic requirements of contemporary urban living, may be the essential catalyst for a city vitality. The main question on this paper is: Can shopping centres be used as the anchor for urban regeneration of consolidated metropolitan areas? If so, what might be the adequate typologies, dimensions and logistic requirements? Not disregarding any other important factors of the urban framework, operating on the border between public and semi-public space, the anchor terminology is not innocent. The paradigms of the contemporary shopping centre stand on the basic lexis of the traditional city - where the most iconic anchor shops relate with the squares in a similar symbolic pattern as that of the public or corporate buildings, whilst the smaller shops are placed along the “mall” streets and configure the common private blocks, as in a real city. Here lies one key factor: the lack of authenticity of the shopping centre urban dialogue, which in this case, could be referred as authentiCITY. As an opposite example, we may refer to the importance of big department stores, in the commercial vitality of many European city centres, where shopping happens without a mimetic solution. In this case, the relation between urban street shopping and department store shopping is diffuse and disconnected. In conclusion, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of connection between urban street shopping and the shopping (centre) urban experience, considering the potential for a synergic relation. For this purpose two case studies, located in Lisbon, were considered,: Chiado regeneration scheme, by Architect Alvaro Siza Vieira (where stands the reconversion of the Chiado Warehouses, by Architect Eduardo Souto de Moura) and the Martim Moniz area, in which stand two small shopping centres built in the 80’s.