Research and Making Of
This video essay aims to explore how shopping malls may entice and ‘control’ its visitors into staying and spending on its shops through its interior design- even during 2021, where the pandemic is still ongoing. Using Langham Place as the case study, some of its most notable features (the expresscalator and Spiral) are compared with known strategies used in malls. The video essay takes a more documentary-esque approach and captures how the typical shopper may experience the mall.
The floor plan of Langham Place’s 8th to 12th floor (The Spiral) (seen in 1:44 – 2:10) is taken from Langham Place’s official website and combined in post.
Transcript:
Malls. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, it is a large building containing a lot of different stores. Although as visitors of malls, we seem to be able to roam as we please, our actions are probably being controlled, unconsciously by the design of the mall, usually to boost commercial activity, also known as: shopping. I am at Langham Place, a mall in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. With an estimate of 100,000 (one hundred thousand) visits per day(https://jerde.com/projects/8033/langham-place), it is certainly proficient at hypnotising its visitors since opening in 2005. This might be part of why.
The (mostly) trusty escalator. As Rem Koolhaas describes in The Harvard Guide to Shopping, the escalator is an attractive, effortless way to travel around the mall, connecting different realms into one continuous experience. It is an enabler of circulation, which Koolhaas describes, equals sales value. I’m not sure, however, when Koolhaas wrote this in 2001, if he anticipated the emergence of these ‘expresscalators’- escalators that span multiple floors, shooting you up to the top.
But these expresscalators not just here to move you around. Margaret Crawford, in The World in a Shopping Mall, argues that glimpses of shops to-be encountered, the prolonged exposure of possible shopping options, encourages ‘cognitive acquisition’, telling shoppers what they can have, and more importantly, what they don’t, and therefore need. Since this escalator directly connects the 8th and 12th floor in Langham Place, to get to any of the floors in between you’ll have to go through a literal spiral. The floors are merged into a continuous strip of shops, sometimes even forcing you to walk through one before reaching another. As the exposure of shops increase, the chances of you spending, increases as well.
Although as the pandemic continues, online shopping has become increasingly popular, the crowds here tell us, that the experience of shopping malls is still a honey loaded trap, we’re willing to enter- at least for now.
References
Crawford, Margaret. “The World in a Shopping Mall.” Variations on a Theme Park: the New American City and the End of Public Space, by Michael Sorkin, Hill and Wang, 2011, pp. 3–30.
Koolhaas, Rem. Harvard Guide to Shopping. Taschen, 2001.
Langham Place, Eagle Property Management (CP) Limited, www.langhamplace.com.hk/.
“Langham Place.” JERDE, jerde.com/projects/8033/langham-place.
“Pandemic Has Forever Changed Online Shopping, UN-Backed Survey Reveals | | UN News.” United Nations, United Nations, news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074982.
“Shopping Centre.” Cambridge Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/shopping-centre.
Chung, Wing Sze Cecilia (3035742487)
In your video, you have shown that how the shopping mall using the escalator to attract the people to hanging around inside there. Your presentation in the video can bring me in to the shopping mall and feel how the escalator links the different realms into one continuous experience. You also explain how the design of the shopping mall affect the exposure of shops.
Hung Wai Chung 3035693040
I enjoy the topic you choose, and your research teaches me a lot. Your content from general analysis on mall’s controlling feature to specific focuses on the trusty escalator, which can be a good representative. Escalator design determines circulation. Circulation affects what people see. And people’s sight affects their mental activity. You give authentic support on every part of the logic link, which makes your research clear and convincing. Your scene has great support for your content. My only suggestion is that it would be perfect if your camera view can be more focused and giving a stronger view. In general, it is detailed research that shows an interesting conclusion. ——-Liu Yichu Cheslea
Good topic! It is true that shopping malls are more attractive than online stores in some ways. Although I have always believed that the essence of shopping in the mall is walking around rather than buying, it is undeniable that the longer you stay in the mall, the more likely you are to shop. Successful shopping malls really know how to retain customers. With respect to your video, I thought maybe you could try to make it more visually interesting. When you are walking around with the camera moving forward with you, I have a little bit of a confusion about where to look at.
It was interesting to learn about some mechanics and designs used by malls to control the customers to buy more or stay longer. I think you did a very good job researching ways malls control and also providing references to strengthen your idea.
Your video was also well organized to show adequate visuals to match your explanation, maybe recall our own experience, and understand your message. I especially think how you showed movement on the floor map made it easier to understand when you say that it increases the exposure of the shops. It is a very well-made video.
However, I also think that maybe it might have been better if you connected the whole content more to the topic of the Covid-19. Although your conclusion is strong and relatable, I think you also could have discussed how the way the mall controls customers changed or stayed the same after the pandemic situation broke out.
A well thought reporter-like expository on the mall. I enjoyed it! You also showcase the control element quite well. Although, it was missing a bit of pandemic context both in the video and the text. I would suggest to use your text (written essay) as an expository tool, a complimentary extension of your video. That way, you can express your research questions, research methods, as well as your reflection upon the research processes in general. For example, what have you discovered about the honeycomb and shopping malls? How are they related to (or affected by) the pandemic? To improve the visual design and information clarity in your video, you could use plan/section drawings, too, especially when discussing the honeycomb vs the sequence of shopping.