weekFAN41_071024

on the center

I know, this is obvious it can't work. as trained architects and urban designer we've been tought that single use can't be a proper solution. but I haven't experienced it before in such a dramatic way.
the plymouth city center is a monofunctional shopping basket.
as mentioned in the post about land use. the spaces and shops in this area are used heavily. well people here have no other option. it comes down to something as simple as that. can u believe it?
what happens to this space within 24h? nothing, eight hours the shops are open, people come in use the space mainly to travel between the shops. very few options to hang round, if there are sitting areas, specialized groups [punkts, skaters, beer junkies, ...] tend to inhabit these. so people end up wandering round trying not to stand out of the mass.
so it starts getting bus (maybe I should try and get up earlier (have to push myself hard) to see what exactly happens beforehand... loading and unloading of goods?) around nine, peaks in the afternoon and suddenly after four, I can't believe nor understand everyone, like everyone disappears! amazing, I have no idea what people living in plymouth do after their daily trip to the shopping area but they disappear in the late afternoon. so at five, certainly after five, I am the only one in a 50'000m2 shoppingcenter -

hello is there anybody?

it becomes scary to wander around the shelves. but one gets used to this and it becomes fun, feels like exclusive shopping.
but seriously the core gets definitely swapped empty by six o'clock. the whole area becomes darks and dead. this is scary!

to go one with a more details description of the shopping area I would like to talk about some other experiences I had in this zone.
one thing I realized and that doesn't go's out of my head is that there is a dramatical change of people using this area from east to west. it is almost unbelievable but the type of shopper changes so significantly that one can see it just by walking along the shops and looking at people.
on the west end of the basket there is the university located. this means lots [30'000] young people, knowledge, trends, fun, energy, equipment, some money, ... just next to the university buildings there a lots of students accommodations [where I live... : ]. there is also the city museum [not too exiting - but art and cultural possibilities, this is an other story...] and lots of pubs.
at this end is also the new drake circus shopping center with the latest [for this area] shops. starting from here along the streets that are exactly east west orientated [thanks to the superb plan] there is a line up just like oxford street [the cheaper sequence towards totenham court road].
slowly, but definitely after crossing the famous middle axis [thanx to the plan again] the shops change. there is still the "sony center" a 40m2 shop, but it also starts with woolworth, ice land, argos, some bodybuilders mussel shops and then those cancer support charity shops, first for humans and later even for pets. then there is a line up of shops that do not have a special focus. they sell everything from cheap to extremely cheap [cheap as bad/worse] appear more like secondhand shops but everything seems to be new. they probably change their content over time. between those there are some secondhand computer shops and then in the end there is a bunch of cash exchange shops. where people can bring in their equipment to turn into cash [and probably go back to argos and buy a new phone...].
in terms of apperance the shop fronts change from big singular, security glas vitrines to small, normal windows that are secured with the wire mesh in front. towards the east the pedestrianized area somehow disappears and there are lots of cars back on the street. but there are also some restaurants and coffee's that put some chairs out on to the walkway and some elderly people sit there chatting [of course these coffees are really cheap, with plastic furniture and cutlery...]
the customers also change. it sounds strange but in the east are the young [or the ones that feel they are] and in the west are the old. only in the west one has to be care full not to get runover by some elderly people in their electro scooters [you know those four wheeled vehicles that look like a chair with a motor and wheels - not the wheel chair]
the end point towards the west across the road that surrounds the central district there is the toys r us superstore. together with a huge, multistory carpark. I guess this was, maybe ten years back, the new fancy shopping point, just like the new drake center that now dominates the east end.
[on this section probably some images are appreciated - let me know I'd love to go out ant document this with the camera]