Abstract:
Large scale, multileveled shopping malls envisioned as westernized modern retail precinct has become an eminent feature in urban environment of Dhaka since last three decades. Its eye-flattering exterior form along with voluminous interior is certainly becoming an urban retail hub with diversified tenant agglomerations. But excessive deep space generated underneath such colossal forms creates challenge for architects and retail planner to channel sufficient movement flow of consumers in those spaces by effective spatial planning. Tenant Mix, a much known theoretical term in retail geography and retail planning, actually coined the conventional notion of typology of shops, their sizes and clustering pattern within a retail precinct. Strategic tenants mix can play a significant role in ensuring effective presence of consumer in every space; therefore enhancing economic feasibility of the mall by making it spatially sustainable.
The objective of this study lies in unveiling the impact of tenant mix on consumers’ movement intensity and pattern within such planned shopping mall in the context of Dhaka, capital and the largest megalopolis of Bangladesh. The single case study based mixed method research is initiated by taking Bashundhara City Shopping Mall as it justifies maximum research rationales considering building scale, number of shops and operational time length. Methods of data collection included first hand field survey of existing shop typology, shop size, their clustering pattern and movement observation through gate count method in all floors followed by Visibility Graph Analysis using depth map software of ‘Space Syntax’. Later on a structured questionnaire survey has been carried out through convenience sampling of the shoppers. The outcome of the study showed that tenant mix as a stand-alone aspect can have certain impact on vertical movement generation mostly acting as an attraction, but for enhancing horizontal movement distribution of consumer in all spaces of single levels, needs a dynamic duo of well-apprehended spatial configuration and strategic tenant mix. Further scope of research remains in understanding multiple attraction stimuli of shopping mall design from urban point of view and explore its sustainability factors of scalar module considering the contextual imagery of shopping culture of the consumers of urban Dhaka.
