The Po Valley (Pianura Padana) is the largest plain in Southern Europe. It is Italy’s industrial and agricultural engine, representing at its best what Italians call provincia: not only a sprawling landscape but also a lifestyle shaped by the economic optimism of the 1980s and 1990s, defined by cars and consumption. Over the past 20 years, this model of growth has produced thousands of abandoned buildings, with shopping malls emerging as some of its most visible symbols of obsolescence. Following retail liberalization in the late 1990s, oversized shopping centers spread across northern Italy, often driven by speculation rather than long-term demand. Today, changing consumer behavior and the rise of e-commerce have accelerated their decline. Mallscape: Po Valley addresses the growing stock of vacant shopping malls, questioning how to respond to a planning model that produced more retail space than society could sustain.