The strategic architecture of shopping malls

The Southdale Center in Minnesota opened in 1956. It is the mother of all shopping malls. It was designed by the Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen, who hated the car-centric culture of the US. He wanted to create centers where people could socialize outside of their suburban homes. The term Gruen Effect, named form him, describes dazzling shop displays that lead to impulse shopping.

However, the inventor of the shopping mall was disappointed by the way his ideas were "bastardized," for example when such centers were built in European cities like his home town Vienna, where Gruen felt they were unnecessary. The Main-Taunus-Zentrum, located on the outskirts of Frankfurt, was the first German shopping center to be built in the style of the American mall.

Here's an example of a controversial project right in the center of the German city of Braunschweig. Heavily damaged during World War II, the Brunswick palace was completely demolished in 1960. The facade of the palace was rebuilt by the architects Grazioli and Muthesius from 2005 to 2007. Beyond the doors, the "historical" building houses a glossy shopping center called the Schloss-Arkaden.

Built in 1994-1996 in a former industrial district of Oberhausen, the CentrO is the largest mall in the country. Featuring elements of traditional industrial architecture in its facade, it is considered an exceptional example of postmodern architecture. The British mall Meadowhall, with its food court making up a central oasis, inspired the architects from the firm Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky.

As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Istanbul is more famous for its bazaars than its malls. The Zorlu Center, built from 2007-2013, was designed by award-winning architects Emre Arolat and Murat Tabanlioglu. The green rooftops of this four-tower building added value to this ambitious project. It also houses the largest performing arts center in the city.

The Westfield Horton Plaza, built in 1982-85, aimed to refurbish the historic center of San Diego. With its mismatched levels, sudden drop-offs and brightly colored facades, it was designed by architect Jon Jerde as "experience architecture." While malls are usually conceived to direct the attention of shoppers towards the goods, this space became an attraction in itself.

Through economic decline and changing shopping habits, the number of "dead malls" has strongly increased in the last decade. Akron's Rolling Acres Mall was the largest one in Ohio when it opened in 1975. The dingy, dark mall closed in 2008. Photojournalist Seph Lawless documented the space after vandals shot out the mall's glass skylights.

This ambitious building, "El Helicoide de la Roca Tarpeya," in Caracas, Venezuela, was initially planned as a drive-in mall. Construction stopped a year before its completion in 1960. The building was abandoned for over 20 years, then squatted by some 10,000 people. It later served as headquarters for intelligence agencies and is now a prison, with parts of it abandoned and surrounded by slums.

The exhibition "World of Malls - Architectures of Consumption" is held at the Pinakothek der Moderne Museum in Munich from July 14 through October 16, 2016. A book covering the exhibition, published by Hatje Cantz, is also available in English.