Thesis (BS Architecture) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2014

In shopping malls, one of the main factors that influence the movement of shoppers is its spatial configuration. It is in a way the element the element that stimulates the shoppers? decision on their shopping destination within the building. This is the cognition aspect of the shopping behavior of people. They are subconsciously moved by their perception of spaces. In this research, the spatial cognition of shoppers was studied in line with the spatial qualities of the selected shopping malls in Davao City. This research was focused on studying the relationships between the visibility and permeability, which were considered in this study as the accessibility characteristics of retail shops in the selected shopping malls. Topological Maps and Spatial Maps of the selected malls were established to determine the Permeability and Visibility qualities, respectively. Statistical analyses and Visual Openness Analysis were done to determine the most preferred spatial qualities. Based on the results, in order to enhance the spatial cognition of shoppers, the mall environment should be intelligible such that every tenant has equal chances of being visually exposed. The visual-spatial relationship of this premise states that the closer you look, the less you see. This implies that the most preferred spatial configuration of a shopping mall should have a wide central activity area and with hallways that are mostly single-loaded. This configuration enables the shoppers to have a wide variety of choices within a single visual field.