How the Strip Mall Can Save Suburbia
Juror summary: suggests how strip mall architecture can be creatively re-imagined as a mixed-use building type that can be built on parking lots in commercial areas.
Architecture can catalyze new ways and forms of (sub)urban life in evolving suburbs. The articulated strip proposes that the (often vilified) standard forms and conditions of suburbia – here, the strip mall and the superblock – can be the generative agents of suburbia’s re-formation. In other words, the strip mall can save suburbia.
The strip mall has a remarkable systemized flexibility: it can accommodate many programs, be deployed many places, and produce many versions of its standard form. However, this potential has never been fully explored; rather, in its current guise, the strip mall typically produces islands of architectural and programmatic sameness, further isolated by seas of surface parking. The articulated strip proposes a new, opportunistic strip typology that is highly adaptable to the specific conditions of its implementation, both programmatically and formally. The articulated strip can be deployed across medium or large sites, but is particularly effective at the scale of the suburban superblock, where its adaptability becomes most explicit.
Key themes: retrofitting shopping centers, innovative building types, infill development
Collaborators: Judith K. De Jong, David Ruffing