#MallsWillFall

By this time of the year, we’re either grateful to have finished our Christmas shopping, or dreading the mad rush and repetitive Boney M that come with the task. But despite malls being the places many of us love to hate, there’s no question they haven’t only made our lives easier, but are a critical part of the retail economy.

In fact it’s to the Eiffel Tower that the shopping mall owes a debt of gratitude, along with all retailers. When Eiffel was constructed for the Paris World Fair in 1887, it was to be a temporary structure to showcase the new building options of using iron and rivets.

Before the advent of iron construction, shop windows would have been the same size as most other windows, quite small. Once an iron girder could be used to carry the