Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. The growth of shopping patterns -- 2. The classification of shopping structures -- 3. Out-of-town shopping -- 4. Integrated shopping -- 5. Special forms -- 6. Case studies -- 7. Conclusions -- Appendix A: Glossary -- Appendix B: Cages: a trend in retail distribution -- Bibliography -- Index.

The idea of this book arose from the experience of the authors in working on integrated shopping development projects without the benefit of a source of comprehensive background information. It appeared that, while much knowledge had been accumulated in the various aspects of the design and implementation of these building types, it was generally incomplete or inaccessible. With each new project therefore it was necessary to go over ground which had already been well covered elsewhere, without gaining from the previous experience. This applied in varying degree to each of the parties involved in the development process, and indicated the need for a technical source book relating to the more complex shopping centre buildings which had been developed by the early 1 970s.

Since that time, a number of books have appeared in the UK and USA which examine in greater depth than was previously available both particular shopping building types and also specialised aspects of their development or management. The ways in which these types have evolved and are continuing to evolve, and the relationships between what has become an amazing proliferation of shopping building types, has not, however, been adequately discussed, and it is with these topics that this book is primarily concerned. In attempting to cover the whole range of shopping buildings in this way, discussion of a number of aspects is necessarily much shorter and more superficial than the authors would wish, and to compensate for this, two case studies are included of particular projects in which the circumstances of their development are more thoroughly discussed. Similarly it has not been possible to discuss anything like a majority of important shopping developments, and the selection of appropriate examples has to some extent been arbitrary.