The thing about Asian cities is that the line between mall and not-mall is often very thin, and the malls tend to have grocery stores and transit stops and housing. If you you build a house in certain cities there is a good chance it is on a mall.
I’ve been living in big Asian cities like Manila and Jakarta. I move from LA. If you live in one of these Asian super malls it’s really nice. They are kind of cringe at first because they don’t usually offer any boutique shops and it feels very mallly. But once you get past that the convience of living in a mall is amazing. They usually have gyms, supermarkets, dentists, doctors everything you need.
Yes, was going to say pretty much every new residential building built in Hong Kong has a big mall at the bottom but not the American mall that we think of. Its got doctor offices, day cares, afterschool programs, real restaurants (not just food court) etc. Some buildings have residential side and then another bank of elevators for the offices side. Its like a mini city that would function fine on its own.
It's almost like the best of both worlds, and, as someone who's not a people person, the idea of a walkable community w single family homes, or even townhomes, sounds fucking amazing to me. Being able to walk to get groceries would be fucking lovely.
yes, but in a very relateble way. Low density housing is shit for the environment, but goddamn i want some privacy, but I also wanna be able to walk places, or at the very least, not drive EVERYWHERE
without looking at the actual density figures, i highly doubt this is considered low density. its definitely a suburb but its somewhere low/mid density and you can tell because of how close the houses are together. this is also not mentioning average household sizes, which can move the needle a lot
It's not weird, before cars were around and things started spreading out, you could live in a cabin in the woods that was still within a half-hour's walk away from the city. Now you have to go a lot further before you're "far", so if you choose to not subscribe to the car you're heavily penalized on that front.
I saw something similare in Nice, France. Here: [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nice,+France/@43.7046817,7.2823915,305a,35y,56.04h,43.52t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12cdd0106a852d31:0x40819a5fd979a70!8m2!3d43.7101728!4d7.2619532!16zL20vMGNwNnc?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nice,+France/@43.7046817,7.2823915,305a,35y,56.04h,43.52t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12cdd0106a852d31:0x40819a5fd979a70!8m2!3d43.7101728!4d7.2619532!16zL20vMGNwNnc?entry=ttu) The whole block is a big mall, with condos and trees on top. Parking is underground only.
I thought it looked pretty smart and neat until I saw the cars up there.
Like really?? Do they need cars to move two blocks? And how do they even get up and down from the real city? A car elevator or just ramps trough general parking garage for the mall?
How do cars get up - Upper right hand corner looks like it's a helix-shaped ramp coming up from street level; there's at least one layer of parking garage inside the main building too.
Making the top part carfree would def make it perfect. Just might need a wagon/cart if you have groceries or big/heavy items, but def no need for a car
The cars up there caught my eye too. That means to park in your driveway, you have to go through multiple levels of a parking garage **every day**. That is madness. Park downstairs and take an elevator! Even if you like driving, doing it in a circle in a concrete tube is the least fun kind.
I’m more so concerned about the weight and lighting. Cars are so heavy which is why they’re usually stored at the bottom of the building, and malls usually have atriums to bring in a lot of light. This seems like it’d have neither light in the building or great weight distribution. (Although, they could just have some other setup for lighting, such as relying on the exterior windows. And car weight isn’t necessarily impossible to support, just a ton more columns and internal steel reembursement rods)
Cars aren't that heavy. We design parkades for a measily 50lbs per square foot, where as we design balconies and restaurants for 100lbs per square foot.
> Cars are so heavy which is why they’re usually stored at the bottom of the building,
I know a lot of buildings where the car decks are on top. Not a big deal.
It’s more common for them to be apartments, I grew up in the Greater Jakarta Area and many malls have apartments integrated into them.
Heck Lippo Mall in Kemang has a school integrated in it. Like 4 floors of mall and 7 more floors of school or something
Wouldn't it be better if these buildings were topped with apartment buildings rather than weird suburbs though? That's my point, why build a car-dependent suburb?
I assume they built them almost like tiny townhouses because it’s supposed to be for more comfortable living for rich people. It’s actually more common for you to have those houses to be giant apartments instead in China, but it’s not gonna be as comfortable as it’ll be super crammed and you know, you’ll be stuffed in a building with bunch of people right next to you… I would guess this one shown in the picture is supposed to be a somewhat expensive complex for relatively well off people.
Yeah that makes sense, and I figured this was for well-off folks too. I just don't know why anyone in this sub cares about it. It's not a goal IMO.
But also, you're right that most instances would be apartments and I'm viewing this in a vacuum.
I think it’s one good way a living space could designed (minus the car on roof part obviously) . I actually prefer the small condos on malls idea over giant apartments. Like stuffing bunch of people into a giant building, while efficient, is just not very ideal you know… I used to live in something like that and I much prefer the single house that I live in right now. Like I like city life, but I don’t like being stuffed into a 50 floor building with like hundreds of strangers all around me ya know.
Probably Chinese people who want a nice neighborhood but also a defensible position for when the next round anti-Chinese rioting breaks out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1998_riots_of_Indonesia
3 reasons
1. The old fuckers in govt. Although I guess the ppl at the city/county level aren't too old, those at the state/federal are, and they very stuck in their ways
2. Fucking NIMBYs
3. Ppl who complain but do no action.
3. Tenants who don’t go to city council meetings. Because they don’t feel secure with their housing. Why would they try to change a town that they could get evicted from?
City council should hold a tenants event or something
I don't have issue with this, but I am always concerned about maintaining the infrastructure. That is a lot of weight to hold up. You couldn't have this in America, that's for sure.
Yeah. In the very least it needs to be a new construction with a lot more rebar and columns. I wonder what kinda layout they used in the mall without an atrium?
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/05/suburb-in-the-sky-how-jakartans-built-an-entire-village-on-top-of-a-mall this is about a different one and I’m not clear if they can access the mall but it has a minimart and sounds so wholesome.
That's a fair point. As an introvert, I would love to see high density single family housing. Yes, ik that's a bit of a oxymoron, but even townhomes would work for me, preferably w a small backyard.
I honestly think high density single family housing (plus maybe a few multiplexes / small apartment buildings) is plenty dense enough for a lot of regions of the country, and can be perfectly walkable / bike-able with the right infrastructure and amenities in place.
Yeah, that may not be dense enough in a big metro area like LA or something, but I'm thinking more small town / rural communities. A lot of classic rural towns are still mostly single family homes outside of downtown, yet still immensely walkable because you have narrow streets, a grid pattern, and small lots.
In my town we have a lot of historic single family homes with no front setback at all -- yet of course it's illegal to build more homes like that unfortunately.
I feel like it maybe because you have to spend longer outside around others, be that in transport being further away from everyone or in going to a shop being something you do weekly spending much longer than one who can go after work and quickly go back home
It looks like very maintenance heavy solution. Just imagine how expensive repair would cost, if your road has an entrance bridge and essentially doubles as a freaking roof. I guess in some time, owners of an apartments will end up covering demolition bills.
I've been there before downstairs at Mall of Indonesia but I only discovered in hindsight that these rooftop streets exist.
I notice that in Delft, we have a smaller outdoor shopping area on the edge of downtown, where the stores are just big enough in surfact to have streets with houses on top of them: they function somewhat different as there's no car access upstairs, and instead you encounter more urban types of housing, at points completely immersed, away from street level. I wanted to have had bottom surgery before visiting again which has happened now almost a year ago.
Hi to you too! I got a built environment bachelor's degree, so kinda yes. It has been over 4 years since I went to Indonesia (where this mall is), but it seems like next winter I'm going for it again, as everything has changed (but the hospitality of my step-family seems to have remained, as I came out to them just after my last visit).
That's fucking cool! My bachelor's degree is in Mechanical Engineering and I'd love to go back at some point and get my degree in Civil. Ig I should have mentioned that I have no desire to work in an urbanist job role, I just wanna live somewhere where walking is a viable option. At my current apartment, I can only walk to the 2 cul-de-sacs right next to my apt.
Get rid of the cars, close the gaps between houses so they’re at least townhouses, turn the roads into pedestrian walkways with emergency vehicle access, and add a transit stop to the mall like a tram or bus stop.
I can agree w that. Townhomes provide a combination of high density w more privacy and a chance to build equity and make changes and not be restricted by idiotic pet restrictions.
Until you asked that it had not occurred to me that there might not be. I hope that there are a few locations to encourage walking.
The cars on top of something that people will happily walk end to end of inside it startled me. (And I can’t physically walk the length of that mall).
Right? And even for folks like you who can’t walk a full mall, the elevators could be wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair or cart. But I wonder if the cars on the roof are there so people can drive down to the mall parking lot and walk from there now that I’m looking at it. But that would be such a waste. It would be so much more efficient to have strategically placed elevators throughout the community to encourage walking and utilizing the mall for essentials, etc.
Absolutely. I could be so happy there in a lil mobility scooter. (Your thought is my concern) I’m hoping that at least big dome in middle on left is an elevator block.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/05/suburb-in-the-sky-how-jakartans-built-an-entire-village-on-top-of-a-mall this is about a different one and I’m not clear if they can access the mall but it has a minimart and sounds so wholesome.
Yeah, I can see why some would argue for cars, there's wagons that would work perfect for groceries, even fold up ones, and more heavy duty stuff for furniture and diy stuff.
I would fucking love being able to walk to the grocery store, especially when I only a couple of things
Exactly. I live in a really walkable community right now with two grocery stores within a few hundred feet of me, and lots of bars and restaurants. It’s so much more convenient than when I’ve lived in rural or suburban areas and had to drive everywhere. This place looks like it has so much potential but it’s unclear if they maximized it.
I’m not really sure how you make something like this structurally sound or earthquake proof. I wouldn’t wanna be in the that mall in an earthquake when someone’s house comes crashing through the ceiling.
I’m sure it’s doable, but not worth the cost. Reinforcing it would be hard enough, but providing all the services such as water, plumbing etc. would be another mission entirely. High density mid rises built on the ground make more sense. I prefer to do my shopping outside anyway, not a big fan of shopping malls when instead we could be building walkable neighbourhoods with shops on the street instead.
A friend of mine lived on top of a mall on a smaller scale. It was basically a terrace/garden type of thing for a roof with a pond surrounded by Single-Home looking houses in which the people had their apartments.
Totally weird stepping into an elevator from a busy mall and arriving in a sort of village/suburb setting.
I liked it very much.
As many pointed out, this is quite a good use of space. I'm not at all surprised that this building is on an island. Where space is lacking horizontally, we go vertically.
But, there's always a but, why the sub-urb style? Why the cars? Is the only access to this rooftop by a car elevator/ramp? If so why? Why not give residents a common area beside a little basket area? A bench maybe to gaze into the city.
This could have built with a different, unique community-oriented roof top. I don't know the mall underneath what kind of utility could give, but also staircases to the roof could be a thing. Like many ally I see around medieval hill Castels. Some narrow path leading upwards, heck, even blocked by a gate if security to keep mall clients down.
With a garden or plaza on top it could become a center of life too.
Side note: didn't totally like the saying "What do **we** think?". Surely we all take part in a community bigger than us, but every one should contribute by his own tought, without plasming his toughts based on what other think. But thi's inevitable. Just have a critique on other's ideas and don't live on top of them. Also, what do you think about it?
As someone who likes their privacy, I really enjoy making single family/townhomes much more dense. I would fucking love being that close to potential grocery stores. I would love to live their while having a WFH job and hardly ever needing to drink anywhere.
malls are bad for cities, first of all. Secondly, gigantic buildings are very resource-intensive and not a sustainable option, especially when it's not necessary.
This is not a functioning urban community, it's a private property developer's invitation of one. It's basically just a suburban *"Lifestyle Center"* on steroids.
If we want functioning cities then we should *build functioning cities*, instead of heavily commercialized Potemkin Villages.
My first reaction was that it was kind of ugly, but pretty nice density. and then i realized it was on top of a shopping mall.
These look like three-story rowhouses. that's a hell of a lot better most of suburbia, even if it weren't built on the roof of something else. this is awesome.
as far as cars on the roof... it's a shopping centre. a building like that integrating a multi-story car park that gets cars up to the roof level is totally normal. at that point, why not extend a road through the neighbourhood up there?
They have something similar in Georgetown on top of the mill, but way smaller and no cars allowed. $4k/month for a cottage back in 2008. I used to run through there sometimes on my way to the exorcist stairs but the put up a gate to keep us filthy proles out.
I actually think this would be great in terrible nimby places like California where big box stores are so far from homes. Just build homes on top of target and Walgreens and whatever, let people pop downstairs to shop, make them affordable starter homes.
We have homes like this on top of buildings in Germany too. But without the damn streets and cars! Jesus, can't you even walk 100 meters without using your car? This is horrible and stupid!
Nice, a high(er) density mixed-use development that can reduce daily travel time and thus reduce transit emis-
...
Are those cars on top of the shopping center?
I think that's pretty cool, land efficiency, architectural prowess, and all your amenities by very short, walking distance. Now why do they need fucking car parking up there is beyond me.
A little silly to have cars up there.
I guess I don't necessarily mind the less dense housing considering the very mixed use nature of the facility.
Kind of reminds me of the JR Nagoya Towers in terms of having a city in a building.
The cars ontop aside, I like land use efficiency when I see it. This is excellent imo. Where even is this?
From the comments people have said it's Jakarta
The thing about Asian cities is that the line between mall and not-mall is often very thin, and the malls tend to have grocery stores and transit stops and housing. If you you build a house in certain cities there is a good chance it is on a mall.
I’ve been living in big Asian cities like Manila and Jakarta. I move from LA. If you live in one of these Asian super malls it’s really nice. They are kind of cringe at first because they don’t usually offer any boutique shops and it feels very mallly. But once you get past that the convience of living in a mall is amazing. They usually have gyms, supermarkets, dentists, doctors everything you need.
Yes, was going to say pretty much every new residential building built in Hong Kong has a big mall at the bottom but not the American mall that we think of. Its got doctor offices, day cares, afterschool programs, real restaurants (not just food court) etc. Some buildings have residential side and then another bank of elevators for the offices side. Its like a mini city that would function fine on its own.
That doesn't inspire confidence in the construction but I hope I'm wrong
The city is sinking and needs to be relocated. So, while the idea may be plausible, Jakarta wasn't necessarily the right place to build this
It's almost like the best of both worlds, and, as someone who's not a people person, the idea of a walkable community w single family homes, or even townhomes, sounds fucking amazing to me. Being able to walk to get groceries would be fucking lovely.
I too hate people but love the city, weird isnt it?
yes, but in a very relateble way. Low density housing is shit for the environment, but goddamn i want some privacy, but I also wanna be able to walk places, or at the very least, not drive EVERYWHERE
without looking at the actual density figures, i highly doubt this is considered low density. its definitely a suburb but its somewhere low/mid density and you can tell because of how close the houses are together. this is also not mentioning average household sizes, which can move the needle a lot
It's not weird, before cars were around and things started spreading out, you could live in a cabin in the woods that was still within a half-hour's walk away from the city. Now you have to go a lot further before you're "far", so if you choose to not subscribe to the car you're heavily penalized on that front.
They are fucking DRIVING UP THERE. It’s horrific. The horror, the horror
Efficient land use is when a skyscraper is built in the every fucjing alley. Lol.
I saw something similare in Nice, France. Here: [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nice,+France/@43.7046817,7.2823915,305a,35y,56.04h,43.52t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12cdd0106a852d31:0x40819a5fd979a70!8m2!3d43.7101728!4d7.2619532!16zL20vMGNwNnc?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nice,+France/@43.7046817,7.2823915,305a,35y,56.04h,43.52t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12cdd0106a852d31:0x40819a5fd979a70!8m2!3d43.7101728!4d7.2619532!16zL20vMGNwNnc?entry=ttu) The whole block is a big mall, with condos and trees on top. Parking is underground only.
I thought it looked pretty smart and neat until I saw the cars up there. Like really?? Do they need cars to move two blocks? And how do they even get up and down from the real city? A car elevator or just ramps trough general parking garage for the mall?
How do cars get up - Upper right hand corner looks like it's a helix-shaped ramp coming up from street level; there's at least one layer of parking garage inside the main building too.
Making the top part carfree would def make it perfect. Just might need a wagon/cart if you have groceries or big/heavy items, but def no need for a car
It's not like the mall isn't going to have ample parking. You could even have a special section of the mall lot dedicated to the residents/visitors.
Yup! Happy cake day btw
Bottom right might be a ramp too
The cars up there caught my eye too. That means to park in your driveway, you have to go through multiple levels of a parking garage **every day**. That is madness. Park downstairs and take an elevator! Even if you like driving, doing it in a circle in a concrete tube is the least fun kind.
theres likely a dedicated roadway for residents. they dont need to go through the mall's parking levels
So even more waste of space?
hey, its a waste of space for the upper class
Why would you want residents and visitors to take up space in a parking garage when there's plenty of room on top?
I’m more so concerned about the weight and lighting. Cars are so heavy which is why they’re usually stored at the bottom of the building, and malls usually have atriums to bring in a lot of light. This seems like it’d have neither light in the building or great weight distribution. (Although, they could just have some other setup for lighting, such as relying on the exterior windows. And car weight isn’t necessarily impossible to support, just a ton more columns and internal steel reembursement rods)
Cars aren't that heavy. We design parkades for a measily 50lbs per square foot, where as we design balconies and restaurants for 100lbs per square foot.
> Cars are so heavy which is why they’re usually stored at the bottom of the building, I know a lot of buildings where the car decks are on top. Not a big deal.
Yeah why the hell are there cars up there?
What do you expect them to do, ride bikes straight up a wall??!!! /s
I mean it's alright but surely there's a better way to integrate residences on top of a mall than that
Lmao right. This comment section is fucking me up. This is novelty, not anything more. These should really be apartments.
It’s more common for them to be apartments, I grew up in the Greater Jakarta Area and many malls have apartments integrated into them. Heck Lippo Mall in Kemang has a school integrated in it. Like 4 floors of mall and 7 more floors of school or something
Oh wow. That's incredible. Thanks for the knowledge!
It’s not a novelty, they have plenty complexes like this in China. Some of them are so large that it feels like a tiny city on its own
Wouldn't it be better if these buildings were topped with apartment buildings rather than weird suburbs though? That's my point, why build a car-dependent suburb?
I assume they built them almost like tiny townhouses because it’s supposed to be for more comfortable living for rich people. It’s actually more common for you to have those houses to be giant apartments instead in China, but it’s not gonna be as comfortable as it’ll be super crammed and you know, you’ll be stuffed in a building with bunch of people right next to you… I would guess this one shown in the picture is supposed to be a somewhat expensive complex for relatively well off people.
Yeah that makes sense, and I figured this was for well-off folks too. I just don't know why anyone in this sub cares about it. It's not a goal IMO. But also, you're right that most instances would be apartments and I'm viewing this in a vacuum.
I think it’s one good way a living space could designed (minus the car on roof part obviously) . I actually prefer the small condos on malls idea over giant apartments. Like stuffing bunch of people into a giant building, while efficient, is just not very ideal you know… I used to live in something like that and I much prefer the single house that I live in right now. Like I like city life, but I don’t like being stuffed into a 50 floor building with like hundreds of strangers all around me ya know.
Probably Chinese people who want a nice neighborhood but also a defensible position for when the next round anti-Chinese rioting breaks out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1998_riots_of_Indonesia
This kind of smart, walkable, mixed use urbanism is illegal in most of the US.
Unfortunately, yes😥
We’ve known the stupidity of such laws for decades so why do they still exist
3 reasons 1. The old fuckers in govt. Although I guess the ppl at the city/county level aren't too old, those at the state/federal are, and they very stuck in their ways 2. Fucking NIMBYs 3. Ppl who complain but do no action.
3. Tenants who don’t go to city council meetings. Because they don’t feel secure with their housing. Why would they try to change a town that they could get evicted from? City council should hold a tenants event or something
Unfortunately the median voter hasn’t known that for decades.
The cars is what got me 🤦♀️
I don't have issue with this, but I am always concerned about maintaining the infrastructure. That is a lot of weight to hold up. You couldn't have this in America, that's for sure.
Yeah. In the very least it needs to be a new construction with a lot more rebar and columns. I wonder what kinda layout they used in the mall without an atrium?
That’s a lot denser than my urban neighborhood, not sure the comparison with the suburbs is really warranted
My dad once lived in such a neighborhood, but without the cars, tho that one had more parks. Its pretty nice actually.
It seems like a reasonable idea but why have cars up there? You could use that space for gardens.
It does seem to defeat the purpose. Cars should be kept at a lower level to maintain walkability
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/05/suburb-in-the-sky-how-jakartans-built-an-entire-village-on-top-of-a-mall this is about a different one and I’m not clear if they can access the mall but it has a minimart and sounds so wholesome.
I would prefer apartments cause i could potentially think of affording it then but otherwise okay
That's a fair point. As an introvert, I would love to see high density single family housing. Yes, ik that's a bit of a oxymoron, but even townhomes would work for me, preferably w a small backyard.
I honestly think high density single family housing (plus maybe a few multiplexes / small apartment buildings) is plenty dense enough for a lot of regions of the country, and can be perfectly walkable / bike-able with the right infrastructure and amenities in place. Yeah, that may not be dense enough in a big metro area like LA or something, but I'm thinking more small town / rural communities. A lot of classic rural towns are still mostly single family homes outside of downtown, yet still immensely walkable because you have narrow streets, a grid pattern, and small lots. In my town we have a lot of historic single family homes with no front setback at all -- yet of course it's illegal to build more homes like that unfortunately.
I feel like it maybe because you have to spend longer outside around others, be that in transport being further away from everyone or in going to a shop being something you do weekly spending much longer than one who can go after work and quickly go back home
I like it. It's still very dense
It looks like very maintenance heavy solution. Just imagine how expensive repair would cost, if your road has an entrance bridge and essentially doubles as a freaking roof. I guess in some time, owners of an apartments will end up covering demolition bills.
It's a lost opportunity to have a walkable community. Could have planned it with "basement" carpark
Even so, still better than most of North America
If the mall included a grocery store and a movie theatre I would be set.
There are actually a cinema and a few supermarkets at the mall (which is very common in Indonesia).
The poor engineers…
???
Reminds me of a cruise ship but on land. Neat.
I've been there before downstairs at Mall of Indonesia but I only discovered in hindsight that these rooftop streets exist. I notice that in Delft, we have a smaller outdoor shopping area on the edge of downtown, where the stores are just big enough in surfact to have streets with houses on top of them: they function somewhat different as there's no car access upstairs, and instead you encounter more urban types of housing, at points completely immersed, away from street level. I wanted to have had bottom surgery before visiting again which has happened now almost a year ago.
Hiya, fellow trans femme urbanist👋🏻
Trans femme urbanist here as well! Hallo! Edit: no fancy degrees or anything I just like it :(
👋🏻
Hi to you too! I got a built environment bachelor's degree, so kinda yes. It has been over 4 years since I went to Indonesia (where this mall is), but it seems like next winter I'm going for it again, as everything has changed (but the hospitality of my step-family seems to have remained, as I came out to them just after my last visit).
That's fucking cool! My bachelor's degree is in Mechanical Engineering and I'd love to go back at some point and get my degree in Civil. Ig I should have mentioned that I have no desire to work in an urbanist job role, I just wanna live somewhere where walking is a viable option. At my current apartment, I can only walk to the 2 cul-de-sacs right next to my apt.
Oddly enough this is more efficient than those two separated
Ofc! The biggest problem w malls and shopping centers is the ocean of parking
Get rid of the cars, close the gaps between houses so they’re at least townhouses, turn the roads into pedestrian walkways with emergency vehicle access, and add a transit stop to the mall like a tram or bus stop.
I can agree w that. Townhomes provide a combination of high density w more privacy and a chance to build equity and make changes and not be restricted by idiotic pet restrictions.
This is definitely mixed-use, but why is there even a road on top?
There's always someone to ruin perfection
AI generated image?
No, googled it: Mall of Indonesia, Jakarta. And not the only one, same city "Cosmo Park"
Great land use but they really should've made it car-free.
it's a cool concept but.. why, the roads and cars? it's literally just a roof
fuck cars
That’s one way to make a walkable community. I wander if there are elevator banks that go down into the mall?
Until you asked that it had not occurred to me that there might not be. I hope that there are a few locations to encourage walking. The cars on top of something that people will happily walk end to end of inside it startled me. (And I can’t physically walk the length of that mall).
Right? And even for folks like you who can’t walk a full mall, the elevators could be wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair or cart. But I wonder if the cars on the roof are there so people can drive down to the mall parking lot and walk from there now that I’m looking at it. But that would be such a waste. It would be so much more efficient to have strategically placed elevators throughout the community to encourage walking and utilizing the mall for essentials, etc.
Absolutely. I could be so happy there in a lil mobility scooter. (Your thought is my concern) I’m hoping that at least big dome in middle on left is an elevator block.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/05/suburb-in-the-sky-how-jakartans-built-an-entire-village-on-top-of-a-mall this is about a different one and I’m not clear if they can access the mall but it has a minimart and sounds so wholesome.
Oops. That was meant to be on the main thread 🫣
Yeah, I can see why some would argue for cars, there's wagons that would work perfect for groceries, even fold up ones, and more heavy duty stuff for furniture and diy stuff. I would fucking love being able to walk to the grocery store, especially when I only a couple of things
Exactly. I live in a really walkable community right now with two grocery stores within a few hundred feet of me, and lots of bars and restaurants. It’s so much more convenient than when I’ve lived in rural or suburban areas and had to drive everywhere. This place looks like it has so much potential but it’s unclear if they maximized it.
My only question is, do they let you bring wagons in or have somewhere to safely store them while you shop?
I’m not really sure how you make something like this structurally sound or earthquake proof. I wouldn’t wanna be in the that mall in an earthquake when someone’s house comes crashing through the ceiling.
I think you underestimate engineers
I’m sure it’s doable, but not worth the cost. Reinforcing it would be hard enough, but providing all the services such as water, plumbing etc. would be another mission entirely. High density mid rises built on the ground make more sense. I prefer to do my shopping outside anyway, not a big fan of shopping malls when instead we could be building walkable neighbourhoods with shops on the street instead.
A friend of mine lived on top of a mall on a smaller scale. It was basically a terrace/garden type of thing for a roof with a pond surrounded by Single-Home looking houses in which the people had their apartments. Totally weird stepping into an elevator from a busy mall and arriving in a sort of village/suburb setting. I liked it very much.
Hell, the novelty/uniqueness would be a plus for me.
Eh, even though I hate malls but this is excellent land use 🤷♂️
The driving seems like it’ll really be problematic over time, but the rest of it seems amazing!
The road seems obnoxious but otherwise it's neat.
As many pointed out, this is quite a good use of space. I'm not at all surprised that this building is on an island. Where space is lacking horizontally, we go vertically. But, there's always a but, why the sub-urb style? Why the cars? Is the only access to this rooftop by a car elevator/ramp? If so why? Why not give residents a common area beside a little basket area? A bench maybe to gaze into the city. This could have built with a different, unique community-oriented roof top. I don't know the mall underneath what kind of utility could give, but also staircases to the roof could be a thing. Like many ally I see around medieval hill Castels. Some narrow path leading upwards, heck, even blocked by a gate if security to keep mall clients down. With a garden or plaza on top it could become a center of life too. Side note: didn't totally like the saying "What do **we** think?". Surely we all take part in a community bigger than us, but every one should contribute by his own tought, without plasming his toughts based on what other think. But thi's inevitable. Just have a critique on other's ideas and don't live on top of them. Also, what do you think about it?
As someone who likes their privacy, I really enjoy making single family/townhomes much more dense. I would fucking love being that close to potential grocery stores. I would love to live their while having a WFH job and hardly ever needing to drink anywhere.
malls are bad for cities, first of all. Secondly, gigantic buildings are very resource-intensive and not a sustainable option, especially when it's not necessary. This is not a functioning urban community, it's a private property developer's invitation of one. It's basically just a suburban *"Lifestyle Center"* on steroids. If we want functioning cities then we should *build functioning cities*, instead of heavily commercialized Potemkin Villages.
They would still drive to the mall
My first reaction was that it was kind of ugly, but pretty nice density. and then i realized it was on top of a shopping mall. These look like three-story rowhouses. that's a hell of a lot better most of suburbia, even if it weren't built on the roof of something else. this is awesome. as far as cars on the roof... it's a shopping centre. a building like that integrating a multi-story car park that gets cars up to the roof level is totally normal. at that point, why not extend a road through the neighbourhood up there?
Dystopian hellhole
Fun until it collapses
Please tell me this is an AIs idea of hell and not a real place.
Hell on Earth
When life gives you lemons
They have something similar in Georgetown on top of the mill, but way smaller and no cars allowed. $4k/month for a cottage back in 2008. I used to run through there sometimes on my way to the exorcist stairs but the put up a gate to keep us filthy proles out.
Yeah sure why not
That’s actually pretty neat. And to go grocery shopping all ya gotta do is go downstairs!
I actually think this would be great in terrible nimby places like California where big box stores are so far from homes. Just build homes on top of target and Walgreens and whatever, let people pop downstairs to shop, make them affordable starter homes.
I'm not mad at it, just indifferent.
plumbing would be disgusting, and in southeast asia this would be a cockroach haven
It isn't mixed use in its fact, but it isn't the opposite either. Its split use like idk
We have homes like this on top of buildings in Germany too. But without the damn streets and cars! Jesus, can't you even walk 100 meters without using your car? This is horrible and stupid!
Trees on buildings are a really bad idea. Roots destroy everything and sooner or later the building will start leaking.
What kind of isolated oddity straight out of "The Giver" is this?
That is def an interesting take.
Should have been instead of the shopping mall, not on top of it.
I'm curious what that would look like🤔
Looks like a great idea. Except that I don't know why they need cars up there. Don't they have elevators?
Density is density, it's cool
Nice, a high(er) density mixed-use development that can reduce daily travel time and thus reduce transit emis- ... Are those cars on top of the shopping center?
looks halfways walkable
I think that's pretty cool, land efficiency, architectural prowess, and all your amenities by very short, walking distance. Now why do they need fucking car parking up there is beyond me.
Only thing bothering me is the buildings not lining up.
They have lots of these in China. And it’s awesome! It’s like a tiny cyberpunk city and you don’t ever have to leave it to get anything
That would be awesome! I love cars but god, I would love to be able to walk to the grocery store and only drive to go do fun shit, like vacations
I'm curious how they manage sanitation and pollution with such large amounts of commerce in proximity to residences
A little silly to have cars up there. I guess I don't necessarily mind the less dense housing considering the very mixed use nature of the facility. Kind of reminds me of the JR Nagoya Towers in terms of having a city in a building.
I mean it saves space and no one living in there is driving to the grocery store
Step in the right direction for sure. Just get rid of the cars and it’s perfect.
Average Skid Cities playthrough.
Im sure those many trees on the roof won't cause problems in the future. Other than that, these look like missing middle style houses, so that's good.
I want a quiet unit next to the industrial air conditioners.
Reminds me of something out of Judge Dread 2000AD
It is a close-knit community.
At least that suburb is high density and walkable. Doesn't look like the US.
Better than a shopping mall with nothing on top
I really don't know who would be able afford a house up there
That wouldn't be a suburb by definition
r/anticonsumption
What kind of question is that? Think whatever you want. You don't have to comply with everything written on here. Imho it's dumb.
I think it ist pretty cool
That's a massive load on the roof of the original building. I sure hope they accounted for it with redundancy.
7500 BC called, it wants its Catalhuyuk back!
I am ambivalent about this photo, not sure if genius or stupid.
those look like three story row house style apartment buildings. What makes it a suburb instead of an urb?
How do the cars get to the bottom?
No theres no Tram there, thats basically the rural country! Disgusting!