So this is the class I had been dreading. What madness came over me? The idea that simply because I was teaching a module about consumer culture, that a field trip to Westfield shopping centre would be a good idea? Anyway, here we all are. Or at least, here I am. My students are merrily off gathering 'data' - although the odds are low that this is all they will gather - while I cower in a mainstream coffee shop. So, since I am here, I thought I would record some of my own thoughts. I don't know exactly what the architectural intention was when they built this place. You arrive from across a bridge which spans the vast Stratford International train station. The while thing is tastefully lit and leads you round a gentle curve and over a gentle hill which each entice you into a collection of glittering buildings that squat like some half-buried metropolis on the other side. Certainly there is no hint from the approach of the sheer size and grandeur of the interior o