Linda Song

Linda Song

The theme that I focused on in my sketches and observations was the notion of inside/outside. I found that the two spaces each conveyed a sense of an interior and exterior, blurring the lines between what is actually outside or inside throughout the shopping experience. Upon observations, the distinction between the two became less clear in the Copley/Prudential Shopping Center as indoor gardens or facades gave the illusion that the corridors and hallways were actually exteriors rather than interiors in the shopping complex. In comparison, the interior/exterior dichotomy was much more direct in Newbury Street as the "hallways" of the shopping center were in actuality the sidewalks of the street itself -- the only interior in Newbury was the actual interior of the shops themselves. This resulted in a difference in how people interacted with the spaces as the perception of interior/exterior forced shoppers in Copley/Prudential Shopping Center to be wander more in the stores than loiter in the hallways between them, similar to how the people at Newbury were forced to go into stores if they wanted to sit and rest some place due to a lack of benches on the street. Although I didn't have much of a chance to express it in my sketches, there were many different elements such as flooring or the exteriors of the shops in the shopping center, replicated from outdoor malls such as Newbury, that conveyed this sense more clearly as well.