CROYDON AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHOPPING MALL - Irene Carlucci

CROYDON AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHOPPING MALL TOWARDS A PUBLICLY SUCCESSFUL PRIVATE TOWN CENTRE

Irene Carlucci

ESSAY 3 - PILOT THESIS IRENE CARLUCCI Darwin College

28th April 2020 Submitted in partial fulfilment of MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design, University of Cambridge

With thanks to: My Supervisor, Lefkos Kyriacou.

My tutors, Ingrid Schrรถder, Aram Mooradian, James Pockson & Julika Gittner

WORD COUNT: Main Body - 5030 / Bibliography - 1426 This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome done in collaboration, exact where specifically indicated in the text.

Figure 1: The first screening of “Bwana Devil,” color 3-D movie, November 26, 1952 Hollywood. By J.R. Eyerman. / Cover of the first English translation of Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’published in 1970.

ABSTRACT This research challenges the issue concerning town centres that provide publicly accessible yet privately owned shopping centres at the core of their civic urban space.

This thesis is interested in the private role within the public realm, specifically on how Croydon’s town centre has and will embrace the private sector following the approval of the Westfield redevelopment plan. This subject is contested in nature and it has now become of global interest. This study locates itself within the complex debate without taking a specific position. However, its purpose is to create a safe, rightful, sustainable and environmentally forward-looking civic space, independently of who owns and manages these structures.

[Fig. 1] The spectator’s consciousness, imprisoned in a flattened universe, bound by the screen of the spectacle behind which his life has been deported, knows only the fictional speakers who unilaterally surround him with their commodities and the politics of their commodities. The spectacle, in its entirety, is his “mirror image.” – Thesis 218 [Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’published in 1970]

CONTENT INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 7 THE WALK ..................................................................................................................... 11 THE AMBIGUITY OF THE BOUNDARY................................................................................... 16 CAN A PRIVATE SHOPPING CENTRE BE A SUCCESSFUL TOWN CENTRE ?................................. 30 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................. 37

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Whilst individuals are in constant evolution, social change is the only constant in society. Cultural, technological or economic factors are all causes that can help to generate a change in society [Fig. 2]. However when it comes to architecture and urban environments, it appears that the latest work in contemporary cities has been decaying more rapidly than the urban fabric inherited from the past. As Richard Sennett outlines the definition of ‘Brittle City’, in his essay ‘The open city’, the vision of how a city should be, today, is weak. Cities fail to provide a clean and safe environment that: ‘possess efficient public services, be supported by a dynamic economy, provide cultural stimulation, and also do their best to heal society’s divisions of race, class and ethnicity’ [Sennett, The Open City, 2017]. Amongst cities like London, the urban growth is occurring at such a rapid rate that it becomes challenging to carefully understand what are the transformations that have been developed. Such transformations must be considered at both an urban level, yet with consideration to a sociological perspective.

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INTRODUCTION

Figure 2: Vetaments ‘Dry Cleaning’ Event at Maxfield.

‘The bonds of community cannot be conjured up in an instant, with a stroke of the planner’s pen; they too require time to develop. Today’s ways of building cities – segregating functions, homogenising population, pre-empting through zoning and regulation of the meaning of place – fail to provide communities the time and space needed for growth.’ [Sennett, The Open City, 2017]. Sennett admits through Jane Jacobs’ work that urban environments need just as much time as men require to evolve, absorb and change, as people need to live and grow into places; where time creates an attachment to those places. Therefore the question to contemplate on in ‘The open city’ is: ‘can these attachments be designed by architects?’ [Sennett, The Open City, 2017].

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One of the latest trends in the UK is the take-over of highstreets and town centres by corporations that have resources and capital to regenerate areas that otherwise would never be able to resurrect under local authorities’ management. This research looks specifically at how shopping centres function as town centres, whilst taking into consideration the current decline of the shopping mall and how this may affect the life within these constructed civic urban environments. Croydon, a town in the south of London, has been selected as a case study. The town centre has been characterised by the Whitgift Shopping Centre, since 1968. Due to the latest societal changes in the shopping system and a recurrent urban neglection, Croydon’s town centre is in urgent need of a regeneration. In 2013 a partnership between Westfield and the already Croydon-established Hammerson was formed in order to combine two shopping centres together and build a new £1.4 billion leisure centre that would take over 1.3 million square meters of Croydon’s town centre by 2020 [Fig. 3-12]1. As construction works on the regeneration of Croydon’s town centre have been delayed, this thesis reflects on the hypothesis that the replacement of an obsolete shopping centre with a new one, as a part of a continuous town centre’s model, may be outdated and inadequate.

This suggestion emerges when reflecting on the direction in which human’s needs are evolving; for example, towards a more sustainable and environmentally aware reality. This research sets Croydon’s community at the centre of its thesis, and aims to find ways to create and design urban spaces in which citizens can relate amongst strangers and engage in a well-established local community.

Figure 3: Model of Croy-

don Westfield proposal

by Allies and Morrison.

Figure 4: Sketch of Croydon Westfield proposal

by Allies and Morrison.

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Westfield and Hammerson Partnership website: http://www.thecroydonpartnership.com [Visited on 23.03.2020].

Figure 5 - 12: CGIs of Croydon Westfield proposal by Allies and Morrison, produced by Leonard Design Architects.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In order to understand what are the most up to date needs within the Croydon’s community, this pilot thesis was set to explore, on a small group of individuals, the emerging themes and issues concerning Croydon’s town centre, through a trial of semi-structured interviews. Due to the unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19 and the interaction restrictions with other individuals, this paper will explore different ways of testing research methodology ahead of field work.

To best recognise Croydon community’s needs, this paper analyses different techniques needed for a qualitative research methodology, in order to support the development of a suitable architectural brief for the regeneration of Whitgift Shopping Centre.

In order to investigate Croydon’s community distinctively and to provide a detailed report on such community, this thesis will use an empirical approach. During field work, interviews to consumers, key community members, shopping centre’s workers and employees will be conducted using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

[Smith and Osborn, 2008; Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009]. This approach is one of several methodologies used for qualitative phenomenological psychology and it lends itself to a selected sample of participants. This practise is often associated with ethnographic studies of a specific community. The aim is to understand interviewees’ experiences and their attachment to Croydon’s town centre. Participants in this research will be asked ‘how they make sense of their personal and social worlds’, [Smith and Osborn, 2008, p.53] where responses will relate to personal experiences or significant events linked to the given environment. This methodology has been selected to encourage an open-ended dialogue between the Croydon community and this research.

The outcome, in this particular instance, will be interpretative to the phenomena and although it will be analysed in conjunction with quantitative research data and qualitative environmental observations, it will not be able to extrapolate sufficient findings that will contribute to similar studies of other communities. However, when combined with additional ethnographic studies, valuable comparisons can be established [Smith and Osborn, 2008, p.58-59].

Figure 13: Cover book: ‘Slow Chocolate Autopsy’, by Ian Sinclair.

[Fig. 13] “Yes, I want to walk around the orbital motorway: in the belief that this nowhere, this edge, is the place that will offer fresh narratives.” [Ian Sinclair, London Orbital Penguin 2003, p. 16]

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Sensobiographic walking interviews is an additional ethnographic research method that will be used during this field work as an instrument to further understand interviewees’ experiences and their perspective of the town centre [Fig. 13]. This approach has been selected to explore two main issues concerning this thesis: the relationship between what a participant may express and feel and where these are experienced; and the qualitative differences between the finding generated by walking interviews and IPA sedentary interviews. In order to generate any observation, this thesis understands the importance of environmental and psychological related findings, as any results will be profoundly informed by the setting they take place [Springgay and Truman, 2017, p.4].

To further inform this paper, an initial walk has been tested at the periphery of the investigated site. The first attempt to a qualitative observational walking methodology has been inspired by the concept of Flânerie which has its origin in the writing of Charles Baudelaire [Baudelaire, 1863]. To be a flaneur in nineteenth-century Paris meant to be a casual wanderer, a street reporter in the modern city. This concept was further explored by Walter Benjamin, in the twentieth century, as the architectural exploration of urban environments upon the human psyche. According to Benjamin, flaneur walking is the principal device in order to interpret modern culture. As an observer and a witness, the stroller coordinates with urban life experiences without interrupting the system. Experiencing first-hand the commodity-orientated marketplace means to become ‘awake’ or ‘to erfahrung’, [Benjamin, The Arcades Projects, 1999] which is the moment when the past and the present merge to achieve a status of ‘awakening’. To achieve such a status, the main tool is empathy: “Empathy with the commodity is fundamentally empathy with the exchange value itself. The flâneur is the virtuoso of this empathy.”

[Benjamin, The Arcades Projects, 1999] Figure 14: The Flâneur, picture by Pierrot Le Chat.

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Start - End

Home Office - Lunar House

THE WALK

This paper explores the physical and the imaginary boundaries created by the privately owned Whitgift Shopping Centre and the public surroundings of Croydon’s town centre. Walking along this perimeter resulted in being an essential tool for the analysis of thresholds, accesses, exits, connections and urban corridors within the existing structure of the shopping centre.

The first attempt to a flaneur observation of the site’s boundaries was developed by a combination of visual moments and experiences that could not be recorded on analytical mappings. This initial investigation has been developed through walking, noticing, recording and spending a considerable period of time on sites which may appear unremarkable. The purpose behind this approach is to understand Croydon’s urban fabric beyond the design of architectural intentions or beyond photographic representations. This technique inspires to achieve an increased attentiveness to the surface, scale, time, history and the potentiality of the urban space; which will consequently inform a more sensible and detailed design intervention for the regeneration of Croydon’s town centre. This method unlocks layers of information and details that will subsequently inform the wider context.

Figure 15: Diagram showing the relationship between the site’s boundary and the investigative walk.

The walk

Site boundary

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With the sole purpose of exploring Whitgift’s boundaries, the first ‘flânerie’ walk, used as a research methodology, started from the junction in between Wellesley Road and Poplar Walk. This intersection marks the northernmost end of the shopping centre and it is particularly important because of the presence of UK’s Home Office headquarters, Lunar House. The walk continues through Croydon’s Highstreet, into George Street to then finish on the starting point along Wellesley Road. Almost immediately, the shopping centre appears to be an inward looking structure with no civic or urban moments to offer at its edge. The structure as a town centre is highly impenetrable for both civic or navigational reasons. During this particular instance, I was removed from Whitgift shopping centre’s perimeter for taking pictures from outside the boundary into the privatised section of the town centre. This first experience developed in the understanding of how impenetrable, as a town centre, a privately owned shopping structure can be. In addition to movement impermeability, boundaries like those of Poplar Walk and Wellesley Road appear to present all the aesthetics of a shopping centre’s back servicing environment. Amongst the empty façades, (which are characterised by barricaded fire exits and ramps that connect the inner-city motorway to numerous employee only car parks) [Fig. 16-17] the observer and pedestrians generally feel disoriented and confused as to whether they are walking along the boundary of a town centre or of an industrial estate.

From Croydon’s semi-private highstreets, the experimental walk took a detour to explore what is the reality of a more public urban environment just outside the boundary of the shopping centre. The wandering explored one of the most popular areas used by the community, Surrey Street. This small road hosts the daily local market and has become Croydon’s community hub, because of popular restaurants, bars, pop art stalls, a youth recreational centre with a celebrated boxing gym and co-working office spaces. This publicly owned urban environment shows a different approach to how to ‘celebrate’ unused entrances or leftover urban scars as an expression of local personality, through the use of original street art [Fig.18-19]. Understanding the transition from private to public and the way the community of Croydon uses those spaces, indicates that perhaps, higher security levels and a more professional management of the area are not necessary measures to create a more comfortable or a more aesthetically pleasing urban environment [Fig. 20].

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Figure 16 - 19: The two top pictures are image 16 and 17. These two pictures have been taken at the edge of the private boundary of Whitgift Shopping centre. Image 18 and 19, at the bottom of the sequence, were taken on the public boundary along Surrey Street.

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Figure 20: Compositional drawing that shows important sites along The Walk. The main objective of this diagram is to show the difference between privately and publicly owned environments.

Hot Spots

Boundary

Walk

Figure 21: Street art on Exchange Square, Surrey Street

As this thesis looks at privately owned public spaces, it is inevitable to ponder on the theme of the boundary: ‘The fascination of boundaries lies in their ambivalent role of dividing and connecting at the same time. They mark the transition between different modes of existence’ [Richter and Peitgen 1985, p 571-572]. While researching other UK town centres’ that are constituted by a shopping centre, like Liverpool One in Liverpool, it appears that for some, the definition of the boundary is ambiguous. Ten years from the inauguration of Liverpool One, a report on the urban success of the structure was commissioned to the Department of Architecture at Bristol University by the shopping mall’s owner Grosvenor Liverpool Fund.

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THE AMBIGUITY OF THE BOUNDARY The aim of the research was to help the reader understand how the large scale retail redevelopment of Liverpool’s city centre fits within its urban context [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019].The masterplan’s goal was a seamless integration of the new development with the existing and the report assess if this has been successful. This paper looks at Liverpool one as a comparable case study for the regeneration of Croydon’s town centre.

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The main criticism risen, in respect to Liverpool One’s boundary, is the ambiguity of this invisible line, perhaps to the point of being subjective, therefore problematic, at times [Fig. 22]. Seamless integration in this instance, can be unnecessary or inappropriate when visitors are invited to participate in a washed and constructed urban experience.

The report on Liverpool One sustains that visitors need to know when they have left the ordinary and they have entered a private urban structure, especially when this transition happens within the city centre’s fabric. Eliminating the boundary between the shopping centre with the rest of the town results to be impossible, since extending the street pattern onto the new development does not remove the threshold that a visitor experiences while walking from established to new, or from spontaneous to curated [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019]. The study on Liverpool One ponders on the concept that perhaps thresholds should be given more importance than it has been: “how can we make spaces that are more accommodating to human uses and psychological needs? The key is to design their boundaries” [Salingores 2016 p.1]. Important geometrical elements of an accommodating environment have been slowly abandoned with the development of early modernism. Windows and door frames were eliminated from the built environment in order to create a cleaner transition between the inside and the outside. This design technique was justified solely on aesthetic reasons, creating at times, uncomfortable environments [Salingores 2016]. Colonnades, arcades and bollards, for example, are architectural features that can help with generating a more comfortable setting while transitioning from private to public: “The success of urban space depends on what can occur along its boundaries. A space will be lively only if there are pockets of activity all around its inner edges.” [Salingores 2016 p.1].

Figure 22: “The deep threshold on Paradise Street. The top-most yellow line represents the legal boundary (revealed by metal studs); the middle line represents a branded boundary, of banners; the lower line represents a further branded boundary, of bollards.” [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019. P. 28]

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Figure 23: Liverpool One’s edge of the boundary. Image showing homeless are well aware of where the invisible boundary line lies.

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When walking along Whitgift Shopping Centre’s boundary, a strong, well-defined edge is perceived to the point where the structure becomes invisible from the outside. The boarder, in this case, is perhaps overly established and consequently it may appear to its visitors that there is nothing on the other side of it [Fig. 24]. Whitgift’s structure disappears, interwoven in between the already existing fabric of Croydon’s Town Centre.

This integration, however, it is not to be understood as a successful integration of a shopping development within the pre-existing fabric of the town centre. As previously established, the structure is overall impenetrable and challenging to navigate, for whoever wishes to experience it from either the inside or the outside of the mall. The sharp edge of the Whitgift results in the absence of a transitional environment that connect the exterior to the interior of the structure, and paradoxically, what seems to be particularly well integrated with the existing fabric (to the point of disappearing) becomes alien, unclear and awkward when experienced [Fig. 26 -29]. Inspired by the report on Liverpool One, this essay explores Whitgift’s boundaries in three different perspectives; temporal, psychological and layered.

Figure 24: Secondary entrance to Whitgift Shopping Centre from Wellesley Road.

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Figure 25: Diagram of the existing condition of Whitgift Shopping Centre. Showing the relationship between public and private pedestrian routes. The proximity between the two; the two main junctions between the highstreets and George Street and between Wellesley Road and Poplar Walk. And all the accesses to the private structure. A to D lines to show the location of the elevations represented on the following spread.

Pedestrian routes

Accesses

Main junctions

Elevation lines

A

B D

C

A

B

C

D 22

Figure 26 -29: Compositional images, taken as a series of pictures along the boundary of Whitgift shopping centre to show the invisibility of the mall’s structure. From top to bottom: Elevation A is the façade on the north of the mall, Elevation B is on the West, Elevation C is on the South and Elevation D on the East of the shopping Mall. Please refer to the diagram on page 21. [Fig. 25]

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Boundaries are temporal when they retain and celebrate the history of the area [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019]. Concerning to Croydon’s town centre, on the Southwest end of the shopping centre lays the Whitgift Almshouses, this building was founded by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift in 1596 as the hospital of the Holy Trinity. Today this building is used as self-contained flats for the elderly community of Croydon.2 The picturesque and historical architecture of the building and its lawns has been preserved for over 400 years, however the building is overwhelmed by the surrounding structure of the Whitgift [Fig. 31]. In this instance, an important opportunity to create a boundary as the link between the present and the past has been missed; routes and connection around the building could be created in order to celebrate the long lasting historical building [Fig. 30].

Figure 30: Whitgift Almshouses’ edge with George Street.

Figure 31: Whitgift Almshouses’ edge with Whitgift Shopping Centre.

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Information gathered from: https://whitgiftcare.co.uk/our-homes/the-whitgift-almshouses [visited on: 01.04.2020]

‘Boundaries are psychological construct’ [Escallier, 2006, p. 80]. When analysing consumerist trends; architecture, urban design and marketing create a psychological expectancy. The anticipation of the visitor, when approaching the boundary of a pseudo public space, grows and a feeling of being away from the mundane life approaches.‘The person crossing it needs (from a consumerist point of view) to feel that he or she has left behind one world (the ordinary) and entered another (the extraordinary).’

[Littlefield and Devereux, 2019, p. 23] Perhaps the psychological boundary is the most important aspect amongst the three because architects and urban designers have the opportunity to craft people’s expectations [Fig. 32]. As Norberg-Schulz asserts, the street represents a section of life in which history is shaped. As such, the regeneration of new large developments like shopping centres as town centres, has the opportunity to create a small universe where the personality of the overall town can be condensed into one environment, which is then communicated to the daily visitor, shopper or commuter [Norberg-Schulz, 1971]. Currently, the Whitgift shopping centre acts as a welcoming sheltered environment to uncomfortable weather conditions or as a safer promenade within one of the most deprived boroughs of London. However, following a continuous neglection and an overall age-related deterioration of the physical structure, the shopping centre is now in need of a redevelopment. Because of the opportunity of creating a new positive impression of Croydon on people’s judgement, a careful choice to the town centre’s regeneration plan is exceptionally important, for both its community and for London.

Figure 32: Disneyland Paris fantasy map by Matt Cyrus.

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Boundaries as a layered concept are important in order to integrate the shopping centre to the town centre [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019]. The boundaries of a new development will have impacts in a community in terms of politics, culture and ownerships matters. The community that surrounds these boundaries will be the daily consumers or the soul of the new structure [Fig. 33]. This raises the issue: ‘if they will view it as an enclave of consumerism beyond their reach or will the shopping centre/town centre reach out to them and seek to include them and their political representative in debates and decisions?’ [Littlefield and Devereux, 2019, p. 22]. Setting the boundary as a layered concept is what stimulates this thesis to set Croydon’s community at the centre of its brief. Being empathetic towards Croydon’s community and understanding its behaviours, interests and needs will support the design proposal for a successful shopping centre that functions as a town centre.

Figure 33: Croydon’s Highstreet

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On the latter reflection, it is appropriate to establish the role of the community in a privately-owned town centre model [Fig. 34]. Profound questions concerning the nature of public spaces, the difference between public and publicly accessible and the definition of what public means in itself, have been explored and commented upon since the 1980s, when the ownership of public urban spaces started to shifted from public to privately-owned. Poorly maintained, low quality and post-industrial public spaces became both attractive and accessible when the private sector responded to the need for regeneration. The issue concerning privately owned public space is not necessary about a corporate taking over public urban spaces but how this acquisition creates access to that space. Therefore the question becomes not one of ownership but one of access.3 A public space is commonly identified by the presence of a public institution or by its purpose of being used by member of the public. Shopping centres that function as town centres are primarily used by members of the public, therefore, can these structures be identified as public? The answer to this issue should go beyond the meaning of ownership and shift towards the understanding of who has access to these spaces and what those individuals can do with this privilege. “These spaces are clean and attractive and offer many experiences. They attract the public in large numbers and are being seen as public spaces. However the customs, regulations and laws that can be called upon to judge issues of publicness have not fully caught up with the trend.� [Kohn 2010, p. 76] Consequently, what is the role of the community within these environments? It appears that these contemporary dynamic urban environments that act as new curated town centres promise access to all the members of the public with the sole purpose of entering in order to shop or to pass through on the chance of being tempted to stop and shop [Littlefield and Devereux, 2017]. A successful town centre should create the opportunity for its citizens to culturally progress and to perhaps, communicate new notions with each commute. Shopping centres, especially those that function as town centres, cannot be solely consumerist environments.

These structures are large enough to provide activates, events and opportunities that are non-profit based, yet educationally orientated.

Overall understanding of this paragraph’s concept from: Littlefield, D., Devereux, M. (2017) A Literature Review of the Privatisation of Public Space 3

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Figure 34: Croydon’s community, CR people campaign. Croydon’s legends by Tothepoint

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Figure 35: Sketch, Revolution 1 – Downtown Croydon

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Figure 36: Sketch, Revolution 2 – Croydon Ma

arket Figure 37: Sketch, Revolution 3 – Croydon Piazza

CAN A PRIVATE SHOPPING CENTRE BE A SUCCESSFUL TOWN CENTRE ?

Following the previous analysis on shopping centres and the issues concerning ownership and democracy within an urban town centre, it is now pertinent to examine the most successful shopping centre models for Croydon’s town centre. Numerous studies and analysis have been carried out in the past decade by different corporations and consultancy companies in order to comprehend the newest trends in consumerism. With the recent decline of the shopping mall and consequently of town centres in general, parliament’s reports and local authorities’ analysis have been emerging in order to gather relevant insights into what could be the future of the high street and of the UK town centre. Following the most recent report “UK Approach to High street and Town centres in 2030” William Grimsey sustains that: ‘the 21st century town is about an activity-based community that allows gathering in comfortable and enjoyable spaces. Most importantly, however, is the need in town centres to create their own identity based on local characteristics, for example, heritage, history and culture will be able to help to develop the DNA or personality of an area and a community.’ [Parliament Publications, 2019, art. 2.30]. It is key to comprehend that the regeneration of a town centre through major corporation developments like Westfield cannot be the single solution to the current decay of these urban spaces. There are some guidelines however the solution should be local; community based retailers with sustainable and environmentally aware products together with workshops and co-working spaces should be the focus of future town centre’s businesses.

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AT Kearney4, an American consulting firm that focuses on issues facing businesses, governments and institutions around the world, provides a report on the mall of the future. The firm speculates on four different models for the shopping centre of the future. Destination Centres, are thought as true destinations for weekend vacations rather than day trip’s standalone structures. These centres could become national or even global rather than exclusively local. They can provide a mix of restaurants, theatres, event spaces, museums, exhibitions as well as activities like indoor skiing, water parks and general theme parks. These places, inspired by a Disneyland resort type of scheme, are currently being built in America, for example; the American Dream Centres in New Jersey [Fig. 38 and 42]. Values Centres are destinations where, rather than being anchored by a department store, they are anchored by an idea or a concept.

These structures can be highly curated and to be successful they have to look at their local community to determine the philosophy behind their centre. The concept can vary from health and wellness to local food and culinary practices or arts and crafts experiences; perhaps all driven by causes like, animal rights, ethnic identity or community’s integration stimuli. These type of shopping centres have already been established in destinations like Platform in Los Angeles or Eataly in Milan [Fig. 39 and 43].

Another model is the Innovation Centre, which is powered by technology where high tech and high touch will combine in order to create futuristic three dimensional experiences. This scheme needs to recruit specialists in anthropology, cultural psychology and ethnography in order to observe consumers’ data, collected so as to enhance the shoppers’ experience. Apple, Amazon and Nordstrom Local are already using these technologies and NYC’s Story Store rotates its retail theme every six to eight weeks based on the consumers’ data collected [Fig. 40 and 44]. Finally, the Retaildential Centres will be based on a combination of work, play and live spaces. Affordable housing, forward-looking companies like Google, Microsoft and Nike, as well as leisure spaces such as; gyms, spas, restaurants and theatres, will all come together into one campus-like masterplan [Fig. 41 and 45] [Brown and Lubelczyk, 2018].

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AT Kearney’s website https://www.kearney.com [visited on: 01.04.2020]

Figure 38: Destination Centre Diagram

Figure 42: The American Dream Centre in New Jersey.

Figure 39: Value Centre Diagram.

Figure 43: The Platform, Los Angeles.

Figure 40: Innovation Centre Diagram.

Figure 44: The Story Store in New York City.

Figure 41: Retaildential Centre Diagram.

Figure 45: New Google campus proposal.

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This thesis explores three initial design strategies to the regeneration of Croydon’s town centre. The first, called Croydon Downtown, is a radical transformation of Whitgift Shopping Centre by re-designing the overall structure into an open air gridded ‘village’ [Fig. 49]. This approach’s objective is to facilitate the orientation and the navigation for pedestrians. The second approach is, Croydon Market, which uses the existing carcass of the shopping centre [Fig. 50]. This strategy’s business plan is based on the concept that ownerships are allowed to shift from private to public. Residents from the surrounding community have the opportunity to claim and transform any of the units inside the Whitgift shopping centre and create a more sustainable, organic and environmentally friendly local market. This option would help reviving the dying town centre by using a local solution to the problem: Croydon’s community itself. Residents will be able to express their personalities by crafting the design and the business plan of their properties. The third approach is a Croydon Piazza. This design is based on the idea that the shopping centre’s car parks can be reclaimed and that Wellesley road can be pedestrianized in order to create a large public space in the middle of the existing town centre [Fig. 51]. With the previously established notion of public space in mind, this approach relies on the idea of creating a civic open-air urban space characterised by a government institution, such as the Home Office in Lunar House. Though the piazza is surrounded by private businesses that are already predominate on site, the square will be for the community to gather, perform and exist.

This design exploration together with the study of the future of the shopping mall, resulted in the development of three main principles related to Croydon’s regeneration plan; urban connectivity, community and sustainability. In order to create a successful town centre is important to connect and celebrate the urban fabric between the existing and the new [Fig. 46]. Community is an essential tool to design a town centre.

In fact, urban spaces need to be created for citizens to use, transform and meet [Fig. 47]. Finally, sustainability is what will provide a long lasting structure. Flexibility in the design and eco-friendly structures will help to avoid issues like, abandoned spaces, deprived sites and mobility matters. Units within the existing structures should be light and adaptable in order to allow a transition in ownerships, business models or to consent new connections within the already built fabric of the shopping centre [Fig. 48]. There are interesting design outcomes in the three approaches explored above, perhaps, a fourth solution lies amongst those strategies [Fig. 52]. However, although design intentions are still being tested, Croydon’s community [Fig. 34] needs to be further investigated and understood in order to design a successful town centre scheme.

Figure 46: Urban Connectivity, plaster Figure 47: Community, plaster sketch sketch model. model.

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Figure 48: Sustainability, plaster sketch model.

Figure 49: Plan and Section, Revolution 1 – Downtown Croydon

Figure 50: Plan and Section, Revolution 2 – Croydon Market

Figure 51: Plan and Section, Revolution 3 – Croydon Piazza

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Figure 52: Latest design approach tested in February 2020

N

1:500 Proposed GF axo with 1:100 Perspective Section and 1:100 Section through the proposed Whitgift

CONCLUSION

This paper explores different topics concerning shopping centres that function as town centres. It asserts that societal changes are inevitable and that we are currently experiencing a drastic change concerning the evolution of our consumeristic needs.

A research methodology to support field work has been established in order to understand, first hand, these changes, especially the ones concerning Croydon and the Whitgift Shopping Centre in specific. Because of the reality that comes with town centres characterised by shopping malls, the boundary is a key topic that has been investigated for its implications concerning; its physical and architectural characteristics, its psycho-environmental impact on citizens and the cultural repercussions that these invisible lines create when they are established. This thesis ascertains that: well-curated and privately controlled yet publicly accessible shopping centres are acceptable as town centres. However, these structures, in order to survive need to change their objective from consumeristic-orientated organisms to, perhaps, a more educational or environmentally active structures. The AT Kearney’s vision of the Value Centre, is what comes closer to the direction that this thesis prefers to explore and adopt for Croydon’s town centre. This research will be able to establish what the concept behind a possible ‘Croydon Value Centre’ is, only after a deep investigation of its community, which will take place during field work. Once this analysis will be completed, an empathic architectural design can be tested on Croydon’s urban fabric. The outcome will be both architecturally and conceptually unique to this town. However, this research model can be applied to different locations and to their respective societies, as long as their exclusive community needs are researched, analysed and recognised.

Figure 53: Sketch of propositional design of Whitgift shopping centre. The sketch shows multi-use units crafted by Croydon’s Community, large open air promenades, abundant landscape and arcades that bring to the privately owned shopping centre.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATIONS: Figure 1: “Audience members sport 3-D glasses during the first screening of “Bwana Devil,” the first full-length, color 3-D movie, November 26, 1952, at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood.”

Photograph by J.R. Eyerman. Sourced from: https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/3-d-moviesrevisiting-a-classic-life-photo-of-a-rapt-film-audience/ in addition to the original resourcing of this picture, the image has been used for the cover of the first English translation of Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’published in 1970 by Black and Red Books. The book’s cover features J.R. Eyerman’s iconic photograph of the premiere of Bwana Devil (1952) Figure 2: Vetaments ‘Dry Cleaning’ Event at Maxfield sourced from: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/opinion/an-alternative-to-consumerism-does-exist-the-performance-economy.

“An alternative to consumerism does exist: the performance economy”. By Sara Arnold. [visited on the 12.04.2020] Figure 3 and 4: Model and Sketch of Croydon Westfield proposal designed by Allies and Morrison. Sourced from: https://www.alliesandmorrison.com/project/westfield-croydon/ [visited on 27.04.2020].

Figure 5 and 12: CGIs of Croydon Westfield proposal by Allies and Morrison, produced by Leonard Design Architects. Sourced from: https://leonard.design/portfolio/westfield-croydon/ [visited on 27.04.2020] Figure 13: Cover book: ‘Slow Chocolate Autopsy’. Novel written by the psychogeography wonderer Ian Sinclair and illustrated by Dave McKean. The protagonist, Norton, is trapped in space, within London’s city limit. 1997. Sourced from: http://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-review-slow-chocolate-autopsy-by.html [visited on 20.04.2020].

Figure 14: The Flâneur, picture by Pierrot Le Chat. Published on 20.05.2019, in features by the Chap. Sourced from: https://thechap.co.uk/2019/05/20/the-flaneur/ [visited on 15.04.2020].

Figure 15: Author’s own image Figure 16 - 19: Author’s own image Figure 20: Author’s own image Figure 21: Author’s own image Figure 22: Liverpool One’s boundary’s ambiguity. “The deep threshold on Paradise Street. The top-most yellow line represents the legal boundary (revealed by metal studs); the middle line represents a branded boundary, of banners; the lower line represents a further branded boundary, of bollards.” Sourced from: Littlefield, D. Devereux, M. (2019). Urban Design, Place and Integration: A Study of Liverpool One, Prepared for Grosvenor Liverpool Fund, Bristol University, Department of Architecture and Built Environment. P. 28.

Figure 23: Sourced from: Littlefield, D. Devereux, M. (2019). Urban Design, Place and Integration: A Study of Liverpool One, Prepared for Grosvenor Liverpool Fund, Bristol University, Department of Architecture and Built Environment. P. 18.

Figure 24: Author’s own image Figure 25: Author’s own image Figure 26 - 29: Author’s own image Figure 30: Author’s own image Figure 31: Author’s own image Figure 32: Disneyland Paris fantasy map by Matt Cyrus, Saghezchi, Visual Development. Sourced From:https://matt-cyrus.tumblr.com/post/178343878654/heres-my-disneyland-paris-fantasy-map-ive-never [ Visited on: 23.04.2020] Figure 33: Author’s own image Figure 34: Croydon BID – CR people campaign Q.How did we cover some of the empty shop windows existing in Croydon town centre whilst at the same time instilling a sense of pride with the local community?

A.By covering the windows with a campaign that shone a light on the unsung heroes of local people and the significant contribution they had made to Croydon.

Sourced from: https://www.tothepoint.co.uk/work/croydon-bid-cr-people-campaign/ [Visited on: 23.03.2020} Figure 35: Author’s own image Figure 36: Author’s own image Figure 37: Author’s own image Figure 38: Destination Centre Diagram. Sourced from: https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/ future-of-shopping-centers. [Visited on: 10.04.2020] Figure 39: Value Centre Diagram. Sourced from: https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/future-of-shopping-centers. [Visited on: 10.04.2020] Figure 40: Innovation Centre Diagram. Sourced. Sourced from: https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/future-of-shopping-centers. [Visited on: 10.04.2020] Figure 41: Retaildential Centre Diagram. Sourced from: https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/future-of-shopping-centers. [Visited on: 10.04.2020] Figure 42: Mega-entertainment centre, The American Dream Centre in New Jersey. Sourced from: https://nypost.com/2019/10/29/huge-nj-entertainment-complex-american-dream-finally-opens/.

[Visited on 15.04.2020] Figure 43: The Platform Shopping Centre, Los Angeles. Sourced from: https://www.fastcompany. com/40437912/inside-the-l-a-mall-thats-defying-the-retail-apocalypse [Visited on 15.04.2020]

Figure 44: The Story Store, Concept Store in New York City. Sourced from: https://www.we-heart. com/2013/06/11/story-new-york/ [Visited on: 15.04.2020] Figure 45: New Google campus proposal by Bjarke Ingles Group and Heatherwick Studio. Sourced from: https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/google/132946-new-google-campus-to-challengeapple-s-spaceship-office-for-coolest-place-to-work [Visited on: 15.04.2020] Figure 46 - 48: Author’s own image Figure 49 - 51: Author’s own image Figure 52: Author’s own image Figure 53: Author’s own image

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