Figures in the Field

Storefront design in the mall setting affords interesting possibilities for an “autonomously contextual” architecture. On the one hand, constraints imposed by the physical limits of rented space and the homogeneity of required storefront appearance, such as maintaining a specified datum line or a particular type of signage, render the homogenization of the mall’s public space an exercise in syntax. These regulating elements are an architectural extrapolation of the “grammar” discussed in The Science of Shopping. And then there’s the prose. Each store (when it can) starts to indicate - in a level far beyond the sign placed above it ever could - the meaning contained within it. This might take the form of shop windows filled with merchandise, or even something like the Hollister display at Carousel, where an elaborate arrangement of shutters and palm trees makes me feel like I’m at the beach long before I even get near the store.
In this setting of contrast between language and meaning, syntax and semantics, the homogenization of signage and the expression of prose, the meaning of that signage is abstracted to the point where it can be considered another agent of bay regulation. However, when combined with the storefront, the result is a hybrid – a “decorated duck,” as it were, which exteriorizes its contents within a regulated frame.