THE DEATH OF MALLS

They are named for the natural landscape they paved over: Oak Meadow, Stream Side, Pine Grove- malls- the ecological disaster of the 1970s. As our hands-on mentality fades and we switch to a more digital age, we are left looking at the architectural atrocities we have made- large, cheaply-made, concrete boxes surrounded by a sea of pavement.

The construction of this mall was protested by the community because it was by a waterfall. They build it anyway and 20 years later it is an abandoned mess.

This is the waterfall, right behind the mall. UGGG!

One of the jobs of the future will be recycling concrete and pavement. Grinding up the old to make materials for the new. Another very important job will be remediation – healing the soil. This will be one of the cutting-edge jobs of the new environmental age. Learning to use mycological life (fungus), compost, and native species to replace the oak meadows and pine groves. We are finding that repairing the land can happen at an accelerated rate when humanity helps the process along.

But what where will the teenagers of the future hang out? Where will the old people of the future sit around? Could be a campfire or could be in a glowing orb of antigravity or maybe we will all just have face shields and see each other virtually. The future is always stranger than fiction. But whatever it will be, it will probably not be a concrete box.

This is what a hippie would replace a mall with. Mushroom house of the future.