Developed with OMA/AMO across design, research, and curatorial frameworks, this exhibition takes the shopping mall — one of the most influential urban typologies — as a lens to examine how malls absorb and generate contemporary urban conditions, reflecting shifts in lifestyles, technologies and modes of consumption. Westfield Parramatta (1975), once Australia’s largest mall, and Western Sydney’s role in pioneering a global model of large-scale, transport-integrated retail serve as key points of departure.

Presented in a black box gallery, the exhibition is organized around five thematic nodes: Desire, Arcade, Transaction, Ideal City and Forum. Together, these examine both the visible experiences of malls and their hidden systems — spatial, technological, economic, cultural, and social — while questioning the mall’s civic role. Each node is defined by a distinct spatial geometry derived from OMA/AMO’s research into 101 malls worldwide. These forms function as both immersive environments and conceptual frameworks. Their richly curated interiors contrast with more anonymous exteriors, evoking a mall’s generic backstage conditions. Arranged as a cluster on a continuous ground plane referencing the suburban car park, the nodes form a non-linear network that encourages free movement, mirroring how visitors navigate malls.

Beyond the physical exhibition, five bookazines operate as in-between spaces — between exhibition and catalogue, book and magazine — bringing together interdisciplinary contributions that both document and speculate on the mall as an evolving cultural form. Within the Arcade, a vending machine selling museum products introduces real retail into the exhibition.