Masterthesis. The Master thesis deals with the relation between the city, the public and the market. It consists of a theoretical part and a design part.
The theory part highlights the challenges and problems caused by consumerism, looking at both the past and the present. One example is the marginalization processes that follow the commercialization of public space. This part shows why we need to radically change our consumerist system. In the next step the thesis develops an utopia for how consumerism can be socially and ecologically sustainable in the future. From abstract thoughts, the thesis is gradually focused as the development of a new concept for a department store is introduced. This is the base for the design of a real place: the transformation of the “Karstadt am Nordbad” in Munich illustrates how the architecture of consumerism can become an egalitarian place. The crisis of the department stores is an opportunity to switch the focus from the profit of single investors, to the common people.
