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.

Autorentext

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.

Inhalt
Chapter 1 - Methodological introduction, research structure & state of the art1.1. A method for studying the retail space1.2. Research structure1.3 State of the artChapter 2 - Suburban shopping mall as Urban Fabric2.1 Territorial and urban scale2.1.1. Special commercial routes2.1.2. Special commercial settlements2.2. Fabric scale2.2.1. Commercial routes2.2.2. Commercial nodes2.2.3 Other elements of the fabric: block, contrada, base and aggregated units2.3. Building scale2.3.1 Base and aggregated commercial unit2.3.1.1 Routes2.3.1.2 Nodes2.3.2 Special nodal/polar commercial unit2.3.2.1 Routes2.3.2.2 Nodes2.3.3 Other elements of commercial units micro-fabric at building scale: block, contrada, base andaggregate unitsChapter 3 - Suburban commercial fabric formative process3.1. Territorial and urban scale3.1.1. An ancient special route: the turnpike road3.1.2 Continuous specialization in route design and construction3.1.3. Nodes and poles formation for the special routes network3.2. Fabric scale3.2.1 Formation of 'traditional' urban fabric on new suburban routes: miracle mile and commercialstrip3.2.2 Route and aggregate specialization: the bypass formation3.2.3 Mature phase: the shopping center as specialized bypassed nodal fabric3.3. Building scale3.3.1. Boutique specialization and special commercial unit formative process3.3.2. Further specialization of base, aggregated and special commercial units: supermarket andself-service fabric organization3.4. Graphic schemes: urban and suburban commercial special fabric formative/transformativeprocess, with examples3.4.1. Formative/transformative process in urban context3.4.1.1. Examples3.4.2. Formative/transformative process in suburban context3.4.2.1. Examples!3Chapter 4 - Retail spaces Crisis and Future transformative process4.1 Territorial and urban scale4.2. Aggregate scale4.4 Building scale4.5. Local/global retail spaces today - reading & transformation4.5.1. "Galleria Porta di Roma Shopping center, Rome, Italy4.5.2. "Place Sainte Foy - Place de la Cité - Place Laurier Shopping center, Quebec City, Canada4.5.3. Urban block specialization and knotting in San Martin de las flores/San Pedro Tlaquepaque,Guadalajara, Mexico4.5.4. Overlapping cities cities: Montreal and Hong KongChapter 5 - ConclusionsBibliographic referencesIconographic sources