Mallin’ Rouge: Composition and Structuring of Malls

Working side by side with the creation of this staged spectacle, the creation of identity in malls, shops and boutiques are also functional.  There are two systems that can bring about the creation of identity: 1) obsessive repetition of iconographic elements and, 2) configuration of an image defined as corporative yet which reflects the idiosyncrasies and the spirit of the company. This image is something that is standard but can be played around with and manipulated without being totally changed. The repetition of the icon makes it much easier to remember. This identity also reflects the personality of the company, the products on sale or the creativity of the company’s designers. In the Trucco Company Shop in Bilbao, the designer Joseba Berano-Aguirre created his work on the objective of making each of the sectors of the shop perfectly identifiable: entrance, clothes section and footwear section. Despite the separation of sections in the shop, the designer maintains a uniform spirit throughout the interior.

After the malls are constructed, along with their images, these places themselves are in a sense consumed, particularly, visually. Going to the mall is not strictly about burning money. People sometimes go there solely for the sake of being there and enjoying the staged spectacle.  To go to a shopping mall means much more to people than just spending money and buying new things, it has more to do with the feeling and the “rush” of new experiences you get from the first moment you step into a shopping mall (“Shopping Mall as a Way of Life”). Akin to tangible objects, the place wears out in the long run. “What people take to be significant about a place is over time depleted, devoured or exhausted by use. If people feel that the utility of an object satisfies their desire, be it physically, emotionally or mentally, they tend to consume it over and over again, until the yearning stops.

Malls consist of different sections that cater to the different needs of the people who come in. It has a number of stores and boutiques, which employ their own unique gimmicks to accommodate their shoppers.