The client requested a strip mall.

Located in sunny, humid, hot Honduras, this would have meant people walking quickly out of their car to go about their business in the strip mall and just as quickly returning to their car (which is something that usually happens at strip malls anyway).

Through this project we questioned the validity of the typical american strip mall, and proposed an alternative to it.  In order to do so we developed the following concepts…
* cheat nature to provide a nice outdoor shopping/living experience
* achieve permanence of visitors through activities
* create branding for the whole project rather than for individual stores

The project would have light green roofed canopies, an assisted natural ventilation, a heat exchange system, artificial cool spots and basically an open air design (low tech solutions for a real life problem).  The shopping experience was been designed to accommodate activities after operation hours and rather than emphasize branding for each store, the whole envelope is a blank (or green rather) canvas that allows for creative branding.