Signe Ganz
Heritage and Architecture
RETHINKING OF A TYPOLOGY: The Bloom Junction | Where Community and Shopping flourish
Due to changes in buying behaviour and online opportunities (Bauer & Rock, 2019; Möhlenbruch, 2012), today's shopping malls struggle with vacancies, which leads to
a loss of identity and an increasing number of crimes in the vicinity (Brinker & Sinning, 2011; Hertwig, 2014; Kube, 2003). Research focused on stakeholders and decision-makers in revitalisation processes resulted in a step-by-step plan that creates individual concepts for vacant shopping centres and addresses a gap within heritage architecture.
Applying this plan to the In de Bogaard shopping mall in Rijswijk, Netherlands, led to a vertical extension with a wooden frame construction. This flexible method allows us to
combine a diversity of housing types and people in one building. The staggered arrangement provides both privacy and a communal garden, whose circular rainwater recycling contributes to the sustainable concept and provides green space in a densely populated environment. This sustainable concept is transferable to other malls that struggle with the same problems by offering solutions in ecological, economic and social aspects.