Mall-laysia? It is no longer a surprise that our country Malaysia has too many shopping malls. When successful, they are bustling centres of commerce, but when they go rotten, they’re husks of empty hallways and shuttered shoplots. Sometimes, not enough people make it through their sliding doors or air curtains and they just look sad.
When these establishments perform poorly, they are eventually demolished to make way for newer (though not necessarily better) projects. However, what if there was a way to repurpose these buildings? Rather than destroying them, why not transform them into schools?
Twitter user @/xxxbyefelicia recently posted a proposal to convert some of these underused malls into schools. The user also listed several shopping centres they believe could be repurposed as educational institutions. This sparked a wave of Malaysian creativity, as people realised that even in abandoned malls and towering schools, there is inspiration – and perhaps a little cry for help.
Many netizens joked that students may suffer even more carrying their heavy books-filled bags if the elevators or escalators in these buildings are not working. Others coined cheeky new names for malls transformed into classrooms and venues for Monday assemblies, such as SMA Amcorp Mall (SEMALAM) or Quill City x Empire City Damansara Resident Schools (QUEER Schools), complete with illustrations for reference.
Online discourse is messy and passionate, but it can be quite humorous like this one. Whatever grandiose plan there might be for the building the education is housed in, hopefully, the future of our nation will have working elevators and escalators to use. That’s one way of reviving dead malls.
Gan contributed to this article.
