| This Master's Degree Project explores the nature of contemporary public space given the prevalence of consumption sites. The shopping mall is investigated in terms of its social and cultural implications. The fact that today many congregate in shopping malls for reasons other than to make purchases, locates the mall in a position to develop as a new centre for metropolitan life. The shopping mall epitomizes the notion of the universal, and thus allows one to address how architecture can create specificity of place in such a context. The building developed is a public library of Canadian literature. Within the context of the shopping mall the building concerns itself with the examination of architecture which allows for new manifestations of public space through programming. Unlike the shopping mall which merely contains people and objects, The Reading Room allows for the appropriation of space on an individual and collective level, as well as the full engagement of the body. |
