Del flâneur al cibernauta. Transformación tipológica y cultural de los espacios comerciales

This article is the product of the "Functions, uses and meanings of design objects in three Shopping Malls in the City of Cali" research project carried out in the framework of the "Sociology of Design" seminar at Universidad Icesi in Cali. Through the review of the space concepts, the article pretends to show that the aestheticpolitical influence of shopping malls on social development is presently materialized on new spatial categories. The radical rupture of the architectonic object with environmental and cultural aspects makes part of a process that began in the modern age with the introduction of the nineteenth century commercial passages that reach the contemporary mall, a space that acts as a flows optimizer in a society marked by new technologies. It also exemplifies a new space in which the relational factor is as important as, or even more important than, the physical factor, and shows that architecture and urban design are redefining their form, function and value.