News

I just love shopping malls. I don't really know why. I hate it when they are closed and cut us off from tracts of previously public space. I hate the way they put an end to the interesting by-ways of the built environment and one-off specialist shops. I loath all their links with property development, speculation, high finance and globalised consumption.

But I love to wander round malls, sit in them and look in shop windows. They make me feel relaxed. They calm me down. They remind me of the early frightening days of school (and some other places), when you could at least say to yourself, "They can't control me all the time. When the bell goes, I can get back into the 'real world'".


Some have called shopping malls the cathedrals of the 21st century, referring to the bright colours and glassy grandeur many have attempted. Certainly with their atriums, vaulted roofs and sculptural features there are parallels between the two. But such comments often intend a negative comparison; mammon replacing spirituality. For me there's a much closer comparison. These are places where people can congregate and socialise and where quiet contemplation can still take place - probably over a hot drink.

I am not making the case for consumption here. I don't usually spend anything much in malls except maybe for a cup of tea or a snack. With me, it's mostly a matter of window-shopping. But then maybe that is true for a lot of us, a lot of the time.

So why do I find malls such peaceful and tranquil places? I think it is because it is the people, rather than the products, that really interest me. It's the sense of being among others. All human life is here. Where do we still get this feeling now? At football? If you are well heeled and male, maybe. Through radio phone-ins? I don't think so. Watching television? Hardly, as we separately tune in to more and more channels of crap. Sitting in our cars, behind our front doors? You must be joking. The truth is that almost everyone - although I am not including the super-rich here - can find his or her way into a shopping mall. There is no traffic to worry about for children. Even the security guards can feel reassuring. You don't have to have money to spend although it can be a treat when you do.


Malls are stronger than most other buildings on access and this can only improve. At the mall caf' I regularly sit in I often see a couple of older people with learning difficulties, with their supporter, at the next table. Like me, it's a chance to take a break, relax, have a drink, put down their bag and be alongside others. There is a craft market at the mall on Wednesdays; it has open stalls all week round and community notices on display. For those of us who have ever felt cut off and lonely or been segregated from others there is something sublime about just being among other people. And I'm fortified by the sense that there's still a bigger world out there.

Ian Madoza is a mental health system survivor.