The modern mall satisfies several psychic and social needs at once. It is perceived as a safe and purified space for human socialization; it is felt to be a haven for combating loneliness and boredom; it provides a theatrical atmosphere proclaiming the virtues of a consumerist utopia; it imparts a feeling of security and protection against the world of cars, mechanical noises, and air pollution outside; it shields against rain, snow, heat, cold; it conveys a feeling of control and organization-in a phrase, the mall is placeless and timeless.

Officially, the first mall was Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri (although department stores already existed in the nineteenth century in Europe). A small collection of Spanish Colonial buildings surrounded by a parlung lot, it opened in 1922. Since then, malls have gradually evolved into self-contained consumerist fantasylands, where one can leave the problems and hassles of daily life literally “outside.” In the controlled “inside” environment of the mall everything is clean, shiny, cheery, and optimistic. The mall is commonly experienced as a nirvana of endless shopping, cosmeticized and simplified to keep grisly reality out of sight and out of mind. In the same way that one can “switch” from TV scene to TV scene with a remote-control, one can switch from clothing store to coffee stand, to pinball parlor, to lottery outlet with great ease at a mall. The mall subtext is essentially shopping = paradise on earth. But this is ultimately an empty, vacuous subtext. Very few people will claim that their experiences at shopping malls are memorable, rewarding, or meaningful. Indeed, they do not remember them for very long once they have
left.

The various elements of the building text are, of course, signifiers. Consider, for instance, how the height of a building can convey a specific kind of meaning. The cities built during the medieval period had one outstanding architectural feature-the tallest building noticeable along their skyline was the bell tower of the church or the church itself. The spires on medieval churches rose majestically upwards to the sky, reflecting semiotically the fact that there is something overpowering about looking up at tall buildings, malung one feel small and insignificant by comparison bringing out a desire for heavenly aspiration in a concrete way. The height of churches thus came to symbolize the power and wealth of the Church. But, with the rise of secularism after the Renaissance, cities were gradually redesigned architecturally to reflect a new political order. The tallest buildings were the palaces of aristocrats and rich bourgeoisie-such as the buildings constructed in Urbino, Italy. Today, the tallest buildings in sprawling urban centers are certainly not churches or palaces. The tallest structures in cities like Dallas, Toronto, Montreal, New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles are owned by large corporations and banks. Wealth and power now reside literally and symbolically in these institutions.

In a sense, architecture is all about imposing order on space.