1st Quarter 2012

Contemplating Consumption
Retail Spaces + Reports from Forums, Conferences and Exhibitions

Retail and Greening, it seems, have not integrated well; there are too few noteworthy Green malls in Asia. Faced with a dearth of submissions, the editorial team wondered why malls, shops and retail interiors are proving harder to Green. Is there not enough incentive for retailers to change their spots?

Vincent Lim’s commentary (Mall Madness) goes some way to explaining the void. Writing from the capital of over-the-top consumption, Dubai, he probes the mind of shoppers, their willingness to surrender to the siren’s call of opulence and acquisition. Truth is, he tells us, malls are a reflection of ourselves, a mirror into our psyches. We want more; far more than we need. Why then should the mall—pandering to our appetites—settle for less? Let there be light, all 2,000 lux from halogen bulbs, at shop-front displays. Let there be cooling, indoor temperatures dragged down to well below what is necessary for comfort. Customers walking into an overcooled, over lit mall are—experts tell us—stimulated, happier, ready to swipe their credit cards.

This said, there are signs of change. The trend towards ethical consumption—think free-range chickens in your local supermarket—tells us that not all buyers have the same priorities. Some retailers in the US—designing their outlets to be day lit—are hoping that occupant comfort will equal, over time, customer loyalty. Some retail chains in Europe (see The Replay Concept) are crafting retail space as an antidote to “modern urban life”. There are shopping precincts in Asia—Clark Quay, Singapore; Xintiandi, Shanghai—that are reconstituted pieces of urban history, where the ambling, unhurried quality of the outdoor public space adds to the bottom-line. This trend is now in Indonesia (see City Walk: Where Malls are more than just Shopping). The editorial team is especially fond of the ukulele shop in Bangkok, Thailand (Ribbee Boutique), made of disused shipping containers. The project is raw, personal, and low-impact; the act of buying here is also an opportunity to reconnect with community.

Maybe it’s too much to ask that big players should aspire to the same intimacy or design language as this ukelele shop. But surely they could change bulbs and re-set thermostats? What will incentivise change here? Ché Wall, Director, Lend Lease Sustainability Solutions (The FuturArc Interview), tells us that we must look at the space between government and market, between regulatory pressure and quest for profit. There is across the region a poor understanding of what makes markets tick, resulting in governments doing too much or too little. New regulatory and fiscal mechanisms must be found if there is to be lasting change.

Tying in with the theme of consumption, there are reports in this issue from several recent gatherings: the International Green Building Conference, Singapore, Sustainable Buildings, Helsinki, and the FuturArc Forum and Green Market Exhibition that toured SE Asia and Hong Kong (Special Report). Experts at these spoke of the difficulty of constructing a pathway to sustainability at a time when some in the world have too much, the rest have too little. How do the people that inhabit these two worlds agree on how much is just right? Judging from the mall architecture in Asia, there is no answer yet.

Lastly, readers will spot a change under the FuturArc masthead, which, as of this issue, reads “The Voice of Green Architecture in Asia”. This is noteworthy for what it does and does not say. We are committed to reporting on Greening in Asia; this will be your one-stop platform for what is going on in this vast region. We have however dropped the word ‘sustainable’ from the tagline. There is too much casual use of the word, so much that it is losing its meaning. No project in future issues will be labelled sustainable unless it proves itself to be a serious contender in this high stakes game.

We hope you enjoy reading. Do share your thoughts with us.

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