Invention, Innovation, Change in Architecture: Arguments from the Escalator of a Fantastic Mall, Conceived as an Apocryphal Illustration to Little Women

Abstract

This article explores how invention, innovation and change work in architecture through the description of a project for an imaginary mall, where the four protagonists of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women are imagined shopping. The four characters are on an escalator, an innovative element of architecture invented to compete with stairs. Malls are also a recent invention, compared to thousands of years of architectural history. The project for this mall, that is titled “Mall of Progress,” offers the opportunity to compare inventions and innovations from other fields with inventions and innovations in architecture, and to discuss how they can prompt change in and outside the discipline. Furthermore, the article discusses if architecture can be considered an agent of progress, as many inside the discipline do claim.