Asia-based studio Linehouse has refurbished the CentralWorld shopping centre in Bangkok, Thailand, introducing a double-layered facade punctured by arches.

According to Linehouse, the revamped facade and seven floors of retail space depart from typical shopping centres by drawing from the history of the site and creating opportunities for "peace in the chaos".

"The design conceptually explores contradictions between the chaotic and peaceful nature of Bangkok, offering a moment of respite in a dense urban district," the studio told Dezeen.

"Located in an area once abundant in lily pads, we examined the stemming, radiating and circular profile of the lily pads, translating this into a spatial narrative to the exterior and interior condition," it continued.

Linehouse used CentralWorld's existing structure as an underlay for its design. The updated facades are formed of concrete arches applied over the original elevation to frame views of the inside.

"The existing perimeter skin of the facade was treated as black render and a secondary skin in concrete formwork was applied to break the regular rhythm of the column structure," Linehouse explained.

Openings are carved behind several of the external arches to host terraces and add visual porosity to the shopping centre.

"We punctured a series of terraces offering exterior gardens for the food and beverage floors, providing a depth to an otherwise flat elevation and blurring the exterior-interior condition," the studio said.

Internally, a central atrium rises between the retail floors, shifting as it ascends to create a network of overlapping ceiling planes.

To support the shifting planes, Linehouse treated existing structural columns with radiating white fins that branch out to form distinctive canopies.

"Upon entering the interior, one is transported to space full of light and volume, offering a meditative journey away from the intensity of the surrounding streets," the studio said.

"As one ascends the interior atrium, the ceiling plane treatment shifts in materiality, beginning with tectonic green metal grids, evolving to natural and tactile textures, timber trellis and woven cane ceilings."

A food hall occupies the shopping centre's fourth floor and was configured to overlook the neighbouring park from the rounded facade opening.

Understated, neutral materials such as timber and stone line the interior to help create a calm atmosphere.

Linehouse is a Hong Kong and Shanghai-based architecture and interior design studio established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling. The duo won the emerging interior designer of the year category at the 2019 Dezeen Awards.

The studio has also recently designed the interiors for a Hong Kong residence that respond to coastal views and a Shanghai restaurant with arched details informed by the New Wave art movement.

The photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud and Depth of Field.

The post Overlapping concrete arches frame Bangkok shopping centre by Linehouse appeared first on Dezeen.

US architecture studio DLA+ has unveiled its design for a multi-purpose sports- and entertainment building in Incheon, South Korea, containing the Cheongna SSG baseball stadium and a shopping centre.

Working with retail franchise Shinsegae Group, DLA+ claims the project will be "the world's first baseball stadium with an integrated shopping mall and the first privately funded professional sporting venue in South Korea".

Set to be completed in 2028, the covered stadium will be home to South Korean professional baseball team SSG Landers and will have seating for 21,000 spectators.

Connected to the stadium will be the Starfield shopping mall, designed by engineering firm Arcadis. In addition to baseball games, the venue will host other sporting events, concerts and a range of private and community activities.

By combining the stadium with a mall, DLA+ hopes more visitors will be encouraged to visit the building year-round.

"Both programs benefit each other," studio principal Sunghoon Jung told Dezeen. "The stadium will have a longer exposure before and after the game and on non-game days, and the mall will draw more customers on game days."

The project will also include a hotel with guest rooms and an infinity pool overlooking the stadium's baseball field.

"The infinity pool is designed with two concepts in mind, seeing and being seen," said Jung.

"Guests in the infinity pool area can watch the game while enjoying their time in the pool. Their activity is a great scene as a backdrop for the fans watching the game."

The DLA+ principal explained that most sporting venues in South Korea are government-owned. As the country's first privately-funded stadium, Jung claimed that DLA+'s design will be centred around the fans' experience.

"Government-owned and funded stadium projects in Korea are very difficult for the sports design expertise to engage in in the early project planning process – it usually lacks a vision and strategies," he said.

"Our project, the first privately funded Korean stadium, went through a heavy visioning and planning process that became a foundation and guiding principle for the design," added Jung.

"This baseball stadium is being built from the ground up with fan experience and revenue generation in mind – we believe that its success will have a positive impact on the future of the Korean sports and entertainment industry."

Other stadium designs that have recently been featured on Dezeen include Populous's plans to expand Manchester City's Etihad Stadium by adding a museum and hotel and the renovation of the National Football League stadium in Jacksonville, which will feature reflective cladding wrapping the stadium's exterior.

The images are by Arcadis.

The post "World's first" combined baseball stadium and shopping mall proposed for South Korea appeared first on Dezeen.

London studio Sybarite has created a department store for SKP in Chengdu, China, that is topped with a landscape created in collaboration with New York-based James Corner Field Operations.

Set alongside the New Century Global Centre, which is the world's largest building, the store contains 500,000 square metres of retail and hospitality spaces with 99 per cent of the buildings below ground level.

"I see SKP Park Chengdu like a symphony, a lengthy composition with several movements that have rhythm, a pulse and that crescendo every so often," said Sybarite co-founder Torquil McIntosh.

"Our ambition in designing this immense destination whose sum of parts come together [is] to evolve the dextrous SKP language and retail offer that we conceived some ten years ago on an exponential level."

The multi-level store is anchored by the SKP department store at the north and the future-focused SKP-S store at the south, which is topped by six water-spewing towers that reach up to 39 metres high.

Between these two anchor stores, a series of pavilions were arranged, divided by canyon-like walkways cut into the landscape that are crossed by angled bridges. These pavilions are occupied by key brands including Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada.

At the centre of the park is a glazed Central Cube, which provides light and access to the shopping levels below ground and contains a square internal bamboo garden.

"The two department stores define each end of the site whilst the central area consists of luxury avenues where retail, gourmet and hospitality unfold in these beautifully choreographed walkways," McIntosh told Dezeen. 

"Although varied, there is a consistency to the design language which is ever present in each SKP project but evolved here exponentially," he continued.

"It is essential to feel like one is in an SKP branded environment without a need for overbranding."

Covering all of the structures are a series of different parks described as a "botanical patchwork quilt" that were designed by New York landscape studio James Corner Field Operations.

"SKP Chengdu is a world-class shopping destination immersed in a luxuriant green landscape," said James Corner Field Operations founder James Corner.

"The experience of shopping is taken to a new level with the visitors strolling through a beautifully crafted landscape filled with art, culture and nature," he added.

"SKP Chengdu sets a new paradigm for a contemporary retail development and urban life."

Throughout the development, Sybarite aimed to create a variety of different spaces for the shoppers and break free from a typical department store aesthetic.

"We need to capture the imagination of the visitor," said McIntosh. "Whether it be through the reflective oculus at SKP, the dramatic fluctuating light and water shows of the water beacons of SKP-S or the pause moments at the grand staircase, the plaza and the amphitheatre."

"There are the reflective pools along the avenues, the parallel universe anti-gravitational artworks and interior architecture of SKP-S," he continued. "There is a huge amount of variety which has the potential to develop as time does so that there is a constant cast of newness on offer."

The whole development sits above several subway lines that have station entrances integrated into the building and an underground car park for 2,400 cars.

London-based Sybarite has previously designed several spaces for SKP, including the SKP Beijing department store and a 20-storey SKP store in Xi'an. McIntosh believes that this is the most unique development for the brand.

"It is about capturing the culture and lifestyle in one place but more importantly about giving back to the citizens of Chengdu by creating a park to enjoy," he said. "The entire experience begins in this park."

"It is signalling a new dimension for retail master planning and hence our need to create a brand new kind of masterplan and for that reason it is unique to any other development that has gone before it in luxury retail terms," he continued.

Other retail interiors Sybarite has recently designed include a lifestyle concept store for Ferrari and the Miami shop of fashion label Joseph.

The photography is courtesy of Sybarite.

Project credits:

Architect: Sybarite
Landscape: James Corner Field Operations
Traffic: AECOM
Fire strategy: Arup
Structure and MEP feasibility study: Buro Happold
Local landscape design institute: BW-LA
Local structural consultant: CABR
Advanced Engineering: Eckersley O'Callaghan
Mechanical & electrical consultant: PKL
Light designer: Speirs Major
Local design Institute: UDI-Shanghai
Water feature: The Fountain Workshop

The post Sybarite tops submerged mall with James Corner Field Operations-designed park appeared first on Dezeen.

International practice OMA has released images of Harajuku Quest, a shopping centre with stepped terraces and a green rooftop that has begun construction in Tokyo.

Designed by OMA's New York studio and partner Shohei Shigematsu for real estate company NTT Urban Development, the building will house retail and dining spaces as well as a rooftop with living walls.

The 8,082-square-metre Harajuku Quest will be located on a site between Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku in Japan's capital and is designed to bridge the two areas.

Its facade will have a different design depending on which neighbourhood it is facing. The side facing Omotesando has a "monolithic, transparent face" clad in glass, which is set back at the top and the ground to create a convex shape, while the Harajuku side of the building has stepped terraces.

This layout was designed so that the facade towards Harajuku would open the building up towards the neighbourhood, which is known for its creativity and distinctive youth culture.

The second of the stepped terraces on this side will have a public datum that the studio designed to be used as a plaza that could hold cultural events.

"The conjunction of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku embodies a duality of urban context as well as Tokyo's fashion and retail culture," said OMA partner Shigematsu.

"It was essential for the new building to bridge the two areas and express two stories," he added.

"Like two sides of the same coin, a single building conveys alternate personalities, connected by a new public corridor. Harajuku Quest acts as both a visual and programmatic convergence point of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku – a gathering place where visitors can experience the activities and aura of global fashion and local cultural scene simultaneously."

Construction has begun on Harajuku Quest and the centre is expected to complete in February 2025.

OMA also recently revealed its design for a domed innovation centre in South Chicago, while its long-awaited Taipei Performing Arts Center has opened in Taiwan.

The images are courtesy of OMA and Inplace.

Project credits:

Architect: OMA
Partner-in-charge: Shohei Shigematsu
Associate: Takeshi Mitsuda
Team: Timothy Tse, Yuzaburo Tanaka, Kohei Sugishita, Chiao Yang, Fernan Bilik, Tetsuo Kobayashi
Executive architect: NTT Facilities
Structure: NTT Facilities
MEP: NTT Facilities
Landscape architect: Landscape Plus
Lighting: Lighting Planners Associates
Graphics, signage, wayfinding: Daikoku Design Institute, Bikohsha
General contractor: Kumagai Gumi

The post OMA reveals design for stepped shopping centre with glass facade in Tokyo appeared first on Dezeen.

Indoor trees, natural light and a sculptural 12-metre-high waterfall help to create a calming shopping experience inside the Hyundai Seoul department store in Seoul, with interiors designed by Canadian studio Burdifilek.

Hyundai Seoul, which opened last year, is the largest shopping centre in the South Korean capital and spans 89,100 square metres – the equivalent of around 13 football fields.

Toronto-based Burdifilek was responsible for designing three of the 12 floors including a central atrium topped with a lightwell. This extends through the core of the building to funnel sun into the expansive floorplan.

All of the retail spaces are organised around the atrium, which doubles up as a green belt to provide tranquil views of greenery and water from every vantage point.

Burdifilek achieved its "zen-like ambience" through the addition of stilted platforms housing trees and waterfalls that cascade into shallow pools from a height of up to 12 metres.

"Hyundai's vision was to allocate 50 per cent of this floor plate to create public spaces where people can socialise in a much more experiential environment than the typical mall experience has to offer," said Diego Burdi, co-founder and creative director of Burdifilek.

"In the end, our solution was inspired by Seoul's surrounding nature. We chose to bring the outside in and create something unexpected that plays with scale."

The studio designed each floor to have a distinct visual language.

The second floor, housing high-end womenswear, is a neutral gallery-like space with a subdued tonal palette.

Instead of flashy colours, Burdifilek created interest through the use of flowing forms, contrasting textures and layers of reflective and translucent materials.

Mirrored panels installed along the inner edges of the ceiling are rippled like water and create the effect of glancing up at a reflecting pond.

Custom hanging fixtures were installed to create a feeling of lightness while indirect lighting emphasises the sinuous lines of the building.

The third floor features similar sculptural elements to those used on the second floor. But here, forms are bolder, colours are darker and natural materials are juxtaposed with more industrial ones.

Cobalt-blue ribbons are used to suspend clothing racks from an unfinished ceiling, while custom-built mirrored display cases allow the featured brands to take centre stage.

"Our philosophy was to create environments on each floor that would speak to a specific demographic, with a different design language while evoking nature in the spaces in various ways," Burdi said.

"We also strived to create some commonality through sculptural elements that will resonate with the guests and give a physical experience of wandering and exploring."

Burdifilek was co-founded by Burdi and Paul Filek in 1993.

Previous projects by the Toronto-based firm include the flagship for Canadian jacket brand Moose Knuckles, where dimly lit interiors evoke winter's frigid darkness.

The photography is by Yongjoon Choi.

The post Burdifilek creates "zen-like ambience" in Seoul shopping mall appeared first on Dezeen.

A gridded facade dotted with trees animates the inner-city IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof store, which local studio Querkraft Architekten has deliberately designed without parking spaces.

Located in the heart of the Austrian capital, the car-free IKEA store is designed by Vienna-based Querkraft Architekten to be accessible solely by foot or public transport.

According to Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which revealed the design in 2020, the seven-storey store is a response to "radically changed customer and mobility behaviours" and an ambition to create a "sustainable shopping experience".

As it is geared towards pedestrians, the trailblazing store also provides on-the-day home delivery services so people do not have to carry their purchases home.

"More and more customers do not even think about carrying home their furniture themselves, they have things delivered home," explained IKEA when the building was first revealed.

"Around two-thirds of Viennese people living in the inner-city districts of Vienna do not even have a car anymore. They come by public transport, walk, ride bicycles or take a scooter. IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof serves all these changed behaviours."

Querkraft Architekten, which described IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof as "a good neighbour", hopes that the store represents the future of retail and urban design.

"This building makes an important contribution to the future of a living and ecological city and also to the future of retailing – this is an urban IKEA with excellent connections to the public transport system and an inviting roof terrace," the studio explained.

IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof's grid-like facade was modelled by Querkraft Architekten on a bookshelf and can be easily adapted to meet changing needs.

Crafted from steel and concrete with a depth of 4.5 metres, it wraps the building and incorporates terraces, open spaces and rooms into which the shop and services expand.

This gridded structure also provides spaces for 160 potted trees and climbing plants, which are expected to act as a "natural air conditioning system" and help purify the air in the vicinity.

According to the studio, computer simulations have indicated that the planting could decrease the temperature around the store by approximately 1.5 degrees Celius.

Three different entrances are designed to accommodate visits from a mix of customers – ranging from those spontaneously walking in through to those on a longer, planned shopping trip.

These entrance areas are all positioned on the same level, which is linked to the surrounding Mariahilferstrasse shopping street where OMA is currently developing The Link department store and hotel.

Another unconventional feature of IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof is Querkraft Architekten's inclusion of a hostel on its upper levels.

While the first four storeys showcase IKEA products, the top two levels comprise 345 beds. There is also a publicly accessible roof garden that incorporates photovoltaic systems.

The ground floor is connected to all of the floors above by a large atrium, which also allows visitors to look between the different storeys.

IKEA hopes this will contribute to the store becoming an "iconic meeting place in Vienna".

IKEA is a Swedish furniture and homeware giant founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. It also has its own research lab called Space10.

Elsewhere, Dorte Mandrup is currently developing an IKEA store in Copenhagen that will have a rooftop park, while IKEA is collaborating with the Queen of Sweden to create modular housing for the elderly.

The photography is by Christina Häusler.

Project credits:

Architect: Querkraft Architekten
Client: IKEA Österreich
Building physics: Ingenieurbüro P. Jung
Green space: Kräftner Landschaftsarchitektur Green4Cities
Structural engineer: Thomas Lorenz ZT GmbH
Building services: RHM GmbH
Cost management: Werner Consult ZTGmbH
Electrical engineer: TB Eipeldauer + Partner GmbH
Fire protection: FSE Ruhrhofer & Schweitzer GmbH

Dezeen is on WeChat!

Click here to read the Chinese version of this article on Dezeen's official WeChat account, where we publish daily architecture and design news and projects in Simplified Chinese.

The post Gridded facade defines car-free IKEA store in Vienna by Querkraft Architekten appeared first on Dezeen.

A brick-lined arcade has been inserted beneath an existing railway viaduct at the Borough Yards shopping and dining district in south London designed by local architecture studio SPPARC.

Set to open in Spring 2022, the social, cultural and shopping hub created by SPPARC with real estate company MARK has transformed an area between Borough Market and the River Thames.

The mixed-use development incorporates existing buildings alongside newly constructed spaces that reflect the surrounding Victorian architecture, set in the shadows of Southwark Cathedral and The Shard by Renzo Piano.

SPPARC's masterplan revives the area's medieval street pattern and includes 8,500 square metres of existing railway arches, which are repurposed to accommodate double-height retail units.

"At Borough Yards, retailers have a unique opportunity to build unforgettable flagship experiences in beautiful, raw-brick, cathedral-scale spaces," explained SPPARC's principal architect Trevor Morriss.

"These splendid industrial structures weave and stitch history and heritage together with contemporary architecture."

Exterior images by photographer Ed Reeve show how the new interventions utilise brick construction to reference the site's historic architecture.

Several disused arches situated beneath an existing railway viaduct have been transformed into an arcade that leads south from Clink Street.

The arcade connects the two ends of the new district and is lined on either side with commercial units. Shops and restaurants will occupy the arches, which feature large windows set within black metal frames that nod to the area's industrial heritage.

SPPARC was able to retain the facades of several former warehouses, which are incorporated into two new six-storey office buildings operated by The Office Group.

"Inspired by Victorian terraces bounding its Stoney Street site, the long elevation of the largest new building incorporates a series of folds that respond to the rhythm of the townscape whilst reaffirming the re-emergence of the location," SPPARC added.

The first section of Borough Yards, named Soap Yard, opened in December 2021 and includes a 185-square-metre Paul Smith store.

A new public square connects the store on the corner of Stoney Street with the neighbourhood's first-ever cinema, Everyman Borough Yards. A neon artwork by FRA Creative illuminates the square and guides visitors towards the arcade.

SPPARC is an architecture studio founded in 2006 by Trevor Morriss. Elsewhere in London, the studio is currently developing a museum surrounding the Golden Hinde – a full-size replica of the of Francis Drake's Golden Hind galleon.

The photography is by Ed Reeve.

The post SPPARC completes Borough Yards shopping district in London appeared first on Dezeen.

This drone video captures the exterior of 1,000 Trees, a shopping centre in China that Thomas Heatherwick's studio designed to resemble a greenery-covered mountain.

Recently opened in Shanghai, the building is covered with 1,000 structural columns that Heatherwick Studio has turned into planters for over 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants.

In the video, the planters are visible from various aerial views and also in a time-lapse that transitions from day to night, demonstrating how they are lit up after sunset.

In an exclusive interview, Heatherwick told Dezeen that the building's decorative columns are intended to "humanise" the project while minimising its visual impact.

The drone footage also offers a glimpse of the development's flat street-facing wall, which is lined with billboards and artwork created in collaboration with international graffiti artists.

A second phase of the project, a 19-storey hotel and office building, is now currently under construction next door.

Read more about 1,000 Trees here ›

The video is courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

The post Drone video showcases exterior of 1,000 Trees by Heatherwick Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

With Thomas Heatherwick's controversial 1,000 Trees project recently opening in Shanghai, the British designer told Dezeen why he believes the top of structural columns is "the best possible place" to plant trees in this exclusive interview.

Heatherwick designed the project to be a distinctive shopping centre that he hopes will become the "heart of a district that had no heart before."

"Typically, big building projects like these are big, sterile blocks," Heatherwick told Dezeen.

"Mixed developments with shopping and restaurants can weirdly sterilise places in spirit. We didn't want to be the people that built a big cheesy wall next to the main art district."

By covering the building in trees, Heatherwick aimed to both "humanise" the project and add environmental benefits in a way that the designer claims is preferable to "heavy" green roofs.

Nature "affordable way" to make complex facades

As the name suggests, the shopping centre is covered in 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants supported in large planters that sit at the top of the building's structural columns.

According to Heatherwick, this planting has many environmental benefits, but also contributes to breaking down the scale of the large building.

"The integration of plants was in response to the scale," said Heatherwick.

"How can you affordably build in the complexity that your eye needs to have variety and human scale rather than monolithic imposition in every way," he continued.

"So every part of the project, we've looked at how we can break that down. To me, integrating nature is a very affordable way to get complexity and movement into the facade."

Green roofs have "little actual contribution" to architecture

Although a simple green roof may give similar environmental benefits, Heatherwick argues that the trees on this project add to the overall architectural impact.

"There's a tendency to think greenery is only for environmental reasons in terms of greenhouse gas emissions – and those are benefits – but a big part of the reason in this project is the emotional engagement, to humanise it," said Heatherwick.

"A sedum roof, or something like that, has little actual contribution to the larger architecture that we all experience."

Heathterwick also argues that placing the trees at the top of the columns is a logical structural decision due to their weight and the weight of the soil required for planting.

"If you look at buildings with wholehearted green roofs, the challenge is that that green is very heavy," said Heatherwick.

"The best possible place if you want something heavy on top [of a building], is to put it on top of the column, don't put it on the beam, then that load goes straight to the foundation. So there was an efficiency to that," he continued.

"The load is transferred straight onto the columns, the irrigation and illumination, and they're all accessible."

"Typically, the architect's role is decorating the box"

The nine-storey shopping centre, which contains 166 stores and restaurants, was designed to look like a greenery-covered mountain.

Along with the numerous trees and plants, the exterior of the centre is covered in balconies, meaning that there was no need to wrap the building in cladding.

"Typically, the architect's role is decorating the box," said Heatherwick.

"So it's playing out how are we going to do louvres, are we going to do frit on the glass. What if we could, instead of playing the game of spending the money on this box – we hate cladding, everything's covered in cladding these days – what if the hero isn't cladding and we just let the structure be that hero."

The shopping centre officially opened in December and according to Heatherwick it is being visited by 100,000 people a day. Overall, he sees this traffic as vindication that the project has engaged the local people.

"This was driven by making something that we hope is engaging people," he said.

"I think the 100,000 people a day are proof that we all need places that trigger a response. "

Heatherwick's studio has designed numerous talked-about projects in the past few years, including Little Island, an elevated park in New York's Hudson River that is similarly designed on top of columns.

It recently revealed designs for two residential skyscrapers in Vancouver that will be covered in curved green balconies and a proposal for a Nottingham development that would incorporate the ruins of a shopping centre.

Read on for an edited transcript of the interview with Heatherwick:

Tom Ravenscroft: What was the overall idea for the project?

Thomas Heatherwick: What was exciting for me about the project was that it wasn't in the conventional, high-powered centre of the city. There was a district with a lot of tombstones of grey, faceless towers around with a lot of people, but no real urban heart. There was a river that had been heavily polluted and had just been turned around into something where fish are actually alive again.

Then in the middle of it, there was the main art district of Shanghai with this derelict site next door. There was no real heart to the neighbourhood. The whole point was that it was something that was for everybody. And so how do you make somewhere that will connect with people, that is a gathering spot and that reconnects people with the river.

Typically big building projects like these are big, sterile blocks. Particularly mixed developments with shopping and restaurants, can weirdly sterilise places in spirit. We didn't want to be the people that built a big cheesy wall next to the main art district. How could we allow the spirit of the art district to grow, rather than consolidate its edge.

The second phase is right next to the district. The form comes down to meet the same height as the edges. So it's coming down to the river, coming down to the park, it's coming down to the art district. And on the eastern side, it's coming down. And then on the south-facing side, it's sliced open. So that's where we worked with the 16 different artists, on the aspects of the skin of the building, but then we also work with a number of them inside.

Tom Ravenscroft: So it was important to make a form that would become the heart of the area, and not be a standard shopping centre. Was it important to make a building that grabbed people's attention?

Thomas Heatherwick: When I was originally studying it was like real architecture only happened if something was a museum. I felt that that shouldn't be how we think about the world around us and that the same love could be applied to something that was for a different kind of aspect of our life. Culture isn't just the arts, every aspect of our lives is culture.

And so a place that has restaurants and shops and kindergarten and workspaces and all the different varieties of aspects of life, that's as cultural as you get.

Tom Ravenscroft: How did you decide on the form?

Thomas Heatherwick: Those kinds of mixed-use developments that include shops and things like that, the outside is regarded as not necessary to be meaningful to an area and you get no sign of life.

You know, unless someone puts an advert on the outside, you just get these impersonal sterilisers, unless someone is engaging internally in the commercial activity, and we wanted to make something that contributes in multiple ways.

Pre-Covid, I've found it fascinating that we said yes to working in spaces where we were hermetically sealed in. It seemed bizarre that the place you spend more time in your life used to be your workspace and you spend less time in your home, yet your home was the place with the garden, your home was the place with the balcony.

So why can't workspaces have outdoor space. And so this is why we developed of the design so that we could have hundreds of outdoor spaces, and even a shop space had an outdoor space as well as a workspace.

Tom Ravenscroft: So by creating the hilly form you have lots of outdoor space?

Thomas Heatherwick: What it is making as many terraces, which means you've got activation, external. Instead of looking at a building, which is just a facade decision that a little gang of people has made, you're looking at something  that has people using  it.

It feels to me that people are one of the best forms of inlivener and you can have, rather than some decision about cladding that I make.

The integration of plants was in response to the scale. How can you affordably build in the complexity that your eye needs to have variety and human scale rather than monolithic kind of imposition in every way.

So every part of the project, we've looked at how we can break that down. To me, integrating nature is a very affordable way to get complexity and movement into the facade. We've got 28 different tree species. We've got hundreds and hundreds of different shrubs and creepers. And those things move.

You know, facades never move. Simultaneously it has a bunch of other benefits. There are more studies than ever or showing the mental health dimension. We're more interested in the mental health impact of place now. So gradually, there are studies that are showing and giving really good evidence that things like street trees, really reduce crime statistics and the mental health aspects, but also reduce noise, take out dust and particles out of the air.

The mental health side and the emotional side was what drove the decisions that led to this. But it happens that there are also other things that we know about. But I am not going to say that those were the starting point. But they are, there's just a whole lot of things in and around that help feel at this scale, a project like this needs, integrating many things into it.

Tom Ravenscroft: So my understanding is that the starting point was a grid of columns and you tried to work out how to take a grid of monotonous grid of columns and make it more intriguing?

Thomas Heatherwick: One thing was this relatively small, but precious art district, then you've got the park next door on the corner of this peninsula, then you've got these two government land plots that we had with a split in the middle. In a way, we were trying to  integrate an art district, a piece of scraggy park that hasn't really found its feet. It seems the thing that could stitch them together was that the park could be the key that the nature.

If you look at buildings with wholehearted green roofs, the challenge is that that green is very heavy.

When you start having 800 to 900 millimetres of wet soil, organic roots and tree trunks and plant material, that's a very heavy thing to put on the roofs. So if you put them on a flat roof the beams would have to increase probably by 40 centimetres or something like that.

So the ceilings will get lower as there's a heavy sink, and that's to transfer all that weight sideways till it finds a column that can get down to the foundations.

So there was this parently with these parallel thoughts of how do we get really meaningful nature into this, but then also not have all these forced down ceilings, because we've got big, chunky heavy beams.

Separately, it's sort of fascinating, I think when you get big projects, you go into the car park and there are these columns. You know, when you see speeded up, David Attenborough nature programmes and there's a seed stem growing in the dark as it's coming up from the seed.

It's going there through four storeys of car parking, it's then going to go some past someone in a kindergarten, then it's going to go past someone drinking, someone eating, it's then going to go past someone sitting at a desk working someone else having a meeting further up.

It felt like the story. To make a flexible frame that can be reused over the future that is of a human scale that can really last this nine metre by nine metre grid emerged.

Then it felt like there was something romantic about that column that is the core to holding everything together. Yet that's also the best possible place if you want something heavy on top [of a building], put it on top of the column, don't put it on the beam, then that load goes straight to the foundation. So there was an efficiency to that.

Tom Ravenscroft: So even though it appears to be an elaborate form, you're saying it's based on structural logic?

Thomas Heatherwick: It's great, it's an absolute grid. There are no curves in the building itself at all. Typically, the architect's role is decorating the box. So it's playing out how are we going to do louvres, are we going to do frit on the glass. What if we could, instead of playing the game of spending the money on this box – we hate cladding, everything's covered in cladding these days – what if the hero isn't cladding and we just let the structure be that hero.

That means we can spend less money on the actual thing we would normally call the facades of the project. And that could be more straightforward, most just more normal.

I found that buildings became flatter and flatter. That to me is the big downside of the amazingness of modernism has been the flatness, that's just such a shame to have no shadows, bright spots and curiosity.

You can read buildings too quickly, you can look at them in about 20 seconds, you never need to look at it again. Whereas the best projects, your eye wants to keep looking because you keep seeing more into them. Nature does that just automatically by itself.

Tom Ravenscroft: I think you may have seen some people's criticism of the building – saying that the trees are a gimmick. So how would you respond to people who say that there are more sensible ways of greening a building?

Thomas Heatherwick: This is a three-and-a-half-million-square-foot project. The load is transferred straight onto the columns, the irrigation and illumination, and they're all accessible. Nature has been pushed out of the hearts of our cities. A sedum roof or something like that has little actual contribution to the larger architecture that we all experience. And at this scale, trees, major creepers and shrubs are something that can really impact. This has been driven by human experience and, trying to really make somewhere that people can love.

I think that the world of architecture has been led very much so from a theoretical side, I think for a long time, and not enough from an emotional experience side. And so what's thrilling for me is seeing 100,000 people going every day and engaging with something that is the heart of a district that had no heart before.

We were often not confident enough in the West. We don't actually have the confidence to make places that are so engaging for people In China they have more openness about what's possible,

Tom Ravenscroft: So this is more engaging than a standard green roof?

Thomas Heatherwick: There's a tendency to think greenery is only for environmental reasons in terms of greenhouse gas emissions – and those are benefits – but a big part of the reason in this project is the emotional engagement, to humanise it.

The focus of my studio's work is largely driven by the urge to humanise a world of buildings that I found, astonishingly, unhuman, as I grew up, and looked at new things that were built. You couldn't believe why something got built, and how we allowed it to happen. To be so sort of deaf to how the emotional response would really be, and how people would feel.

So this is driven by making something that we hope is engaging people and I think the 100,000 people a day are proof that we all need places that trigger a response. And you don't have a single response. Everything's got multiple responses and questions and provocations in that. And I think we've spent too much time making places that aren't, don't have enough layers of diversity within them to respond to.

Tom Ravenscroft: So to make it more intriguing?

Thomas Heatherwick: That's what the old buildings that we like have, they have many layers. You don't just look at them and 30 seconds later think I never need to look at this building ever again.

Dezeen is on WeChat!

Click here to read the Chinese version of this article on Dezeen's official WeChat account, where we publish daily architecture and design news and projects in Simplified Chinese.

The post "We all need places that trigger a response" says Thomas Heatherwick appeared first on Dezeen.

British designer Thomas Heatherwick has unveiled a plant-covered shopping centre in Shanghai, China, that incorporates over 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants.

Named 1,000 Trees to reference its planting, the nine-storey building was designed to resemble a greenery-covered mountain.

Located alongside the M50 art district and the Suzhou Creek, the block officially opened to the public last month.

The latest images released by Heatherwick Studio show the exterior of the project for developer Tian An at day and night, as well as inside the building.

The structure of the retail development was built with a grid of concrete columns arranged at a 45-degree angle to the river.

Each of the columns is topped with a planter that contains a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, as well as shrubs and hanging plants.

Over 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants have been placed on the building in total.

Heatherwick hopes that the grid and numerous planters will help to break down the mass of the development that contains 166 retail units.

"1,000 Trees is inspired by the idea of making cities into social spaces," he said.

"It breaks down the monolithic scale of a typical retail development into a multitude of human-scale spaces. I think it will be transformational for people who live and work in this dense residential neighbourhood."

The building contains 62,706-square-metres of retail space across 12 flagship stores, 91 shops, and 63 food and beverage outlets.

A food court and supermarket are located in the basement, with shops on the five floors above and restaurants on the building's upper four storeys.

A series of artworks curated by French street artist Paul Dezio have been placed throughout the building. Sixteen artists were commissioned to create pieces that include a 40-metre-high mural in the elevator shaft.

Meanwhile, the street-facing wall of the development has also been covered in street art.

"We wanted to create a place that brings together nature, commerce and wellbeing," said Lisa Finlay, partner at Heatherwick Studio.

"It's turned an ex-industrial site into a new destination exploring the powerful relationships between art, landscape and architecture."

Known as the West Mountain, the shopping centre is the first phase of the development on the site. It will be followed by 19-storey East Mountain, which will contain offices and a hotel.

The development is the latest building by Heatherwick Studio to incorporate a large amount of planting. The studio recently unveiled a skyscraper in Singapore with balconies overflowing with plants and a flora-filled Maggie's Centre in Leeds, UK.

Heatherwick Studio is also behind the Little Island park and outdoor theatre in New York, and currently designing a "gigantic planted pergola" in Tokyo.

Photography is by Qingyan Zhu.

The post Thomas Heatherwick unveils 1,000 Trees shopping centre in Shanghai appeared first on Dezeen.

Designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio has proposed retaining and rewilding the frame of a partly demolished shopping centre to form a new mixed-use development and public leisure space in Nottingham.

The development focuses on the site of the former Broadmarsh shopping centre in Nottingham, UK, which was abandoned mid-demolition when developers Intu went into administration at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a plan devised by Heatherwick Studio together with development company Stories, parts of this ruin would be retained and integrated with new structures as both a creative response to the site and a way of reducing carbon emissions from construction.

The plan for this 20-acre area of the city centre incorporates 750 new homes, office and conference space, high-quality ground-floor retail, an acre of wildlife-rich green space, an event space and a rejuvenation of the entrance to Nottingham's cave network.

Heatherwick said that the project had been a chance to think about "the failure of our city centres" in the wake of the pandemic.

"They should be about bringing people together, not just about retail," he said. "Rather than demolish the structure, we are proposing to keep the frame and breathe new life into it, creating a place that can hold the diversity and vibrancy that is so lacking from many city centres."

"The aim is to bridge between generations, communities, and cultures so that the new Broad Marsh can reflect the true diversity of the city," he continued.

"In the fog of Covid-19, Nottingham has seized the opportunity to create a new blueprint for the future of city centres."

The proposal has been approved by Nottingham City Council, which regained ownership of the site after Intu went into administration.

The council commissioned Heatherwick Studio and Stories to work with its independent Greater Broad Marsh Advisory Group on the site, with all three parties building on ideas that came out of a public consultation process dubbed "the Big Conversation".

Among the proposal's key elements is the addition of an acre of green space, which will weave in and out of the frame formed by the ruins of Broadmarsh.

The inside of the frame made from the shopping centre structure will be a unique indoor/outdoor space with a diverse range of uses. Renderings envision areas being used for eateries, a community garden, a skate ramp, a gym, a climbing wall and live entertainment.

The 750 new homes will have a prime location on the west side of the site, looking up at Nottingham Castle.

The plan will also reinstate and rebuild lost street connections, and includes a new entrance for Nottingham's cave network. The existing Severns House hotel above the caves will get a refresh and be transformed into an art hotel that is connected to a new heritage and culture trail through the city.

The Greater Broad Marsh Advisory Group has said that the next step towards realising the Broad Marsh project will involve masterplanning and seeking investment and will take two to three years.

Coming from a design rather than an architecture background, Heatherwick is known for projects such as London's Coal Drops Yard, which transformed a Victorian industrial site, and river park Little Island which sits on stilts on the Hudson River.

Among his current projects is a timber centrepiece for the Surrey campus of pharmaceuticals company UCB, and a pair of irregularly shaped skyscrapers destined for Vancouver.

The post Heatherwick proposal for Nottingham development incorporates ruins of shopping centre appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio Foster + Partners has designed an Apple Store in Los Angeles as "a dynamic hall of illusions" amplified by a mirrored ceiling that reflects rows of indoor trees.

The single-level store, which replaces an existing structure, is located at The Grove, one of the city's prominent shopping centres adjacent to affluent neighbourhoods Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.

Measuring twice the size of the site's original structure, the new store for technology company Apple is a triple-height rectilinear building positioned in an open-air plaza.

A large glass facade was designed to enhance a sense of community both in and around the shop. This has been fitted with two three-metre-by-10-metre sliding doors that will allow the store to be naturally ventilated for large portions of the year.

This accessibility is also reflected in the Apple Store's two entrances, as visitors can arrive at the shop from directly inside The Grove or at West 3rd Street where they are greeted with an area dedicated to picking up Apple products.

Skylights flood the store with natural light from above, where white beams support an expansive mirrored ceiling made from specialised stretched fabric and cast dramatic shadows on the Castagna stone-clad walls that flank the interior space.

The statement ceiling reflects rows of light-coloured wooden tables set up for product consultations, often considered a staple of Apple Stores.

"Apple at The Grove is a dynamic hall of illusions that captures the vitality of Los Angeles," said Foster + Partners.

Also reflected in the mirrored ceiling – which the architecture firm said was Apple's first – are two parallel rows of eight ficus trees.

"The trees make their way through the building onto the edge of West 3rd Street, establishing biophilic links and creating a lush, inviting atmosphere," explained Foster + Partners.

Lengthy displays of Apple products line the space's stone walls, while a large presentation screen surrounded by benches sits at the far end of the store.

"The design is rooted in its locality, while also addressing the rich history of motion pictures in the city," added the studio.

British office Foster + Partners has designed numerous other Apple Stores. These include the recent Apple Tower Theatre, another project in Los Angeles located in an abandoned 1920s theatre, and a minimal Istanbul store also flanked by two stone walls.

The photography is by Nigel Young and is courtesy of Foster + Partners.

The post Reflections and shadows define Los Angeles Apple Store by Foster + Partners appeared first on Dezeen.

MVRDV will "break open" the Heuvel shopping centre in Eindhoven to connect it with the city, in plans that will also add a music venue topped with a climbable glass mountain.

In a proposal that's being unofficially called "The Hill Quarter & The Music Mountain", MVRDV envisions radically transforming the ageing inner-city shopping centre to turn it into a green cultural quarter.

The plan includes the addition of a stacked new building, the Muziekgebouw, sat amongst rooftop parks above the shopping centre's existing music venue with the same name.

The venue could accommodate an expanded events programme and would also be designed as a landmark, with a glass outer shell. MVRDV says visitors will be able to climb the glass mountain for views of the city.

The broader plans for the shopping centre involve expanding and "breaking open" the existing buildings so that they better integrate with surrounding public spaces.

Currently covered passages will be replaced with open streets, and the rooftops will be made green and accessible.

The precinct will combine shopping, culture and recreation, and the Muziekgebouw will be positioned as "a living room for the city", with a foyer that is open for people to work, meet and relax in during the day.

"Our vision is an open and accessible shopping, residential, and cultural quarter," said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. "We achieve this by radically opening up the existing buildings, transforming the complex into seven new city blocks, and expanding upwards from the roofs."

"Our goal is to make the complex attractive again for all the people of Eindhoven who want to shop and go out, while at the same time ensuring interaction with the inner city," he added.

The plan is the result of ongoing efforts by Eindhoven city council, North Brabant province, site owner CBRE and regional businesses to rescue the Muziekgebouw and Heuvel shopping centre.

The next step will be a feasibility study, which MVRDV expects before the end of the year.

The Dutch practice, founded in 1993, is one of the world's leading architecture firms.

Among its other current projects is a plan to revive London's Oxford Street shopping precinct, with a vision that also involves a kind of mountain, a viewpoint called Marble Arch Hill.

The post MVRDV to transform Eindhoven's Heuvel shopping centre with glass "Music Mountain" appeared first on Dezeen.

Shopping centres don't have to "bright, white and shiny" according to AIM Architecture, which has transformed the Xintiandi mall in Shanghai by adding natural materials and plants.

The previously underused atrium has been reimagined in the spirit of a garden plaza, with wooden surfaces, plants hanging down from the balconies and natural light filtering in from above.

Architect Wendy Saunders, co-principal of AIM Architecture, said the aim was to bring nature into a type of space that is typically very sterile.

"The sheer scale and amount of shopping malls in Asia can be overwhelming," she told Dezeen. "Materials are usually very bright, white and shiny, and lack any natural feeling or environment."

"Here, we tried to defy that," she said. "Materials were chosen to enhance the feeling of an oasis."

AIM's first move was to open up a skylight that had been partially covered over. This means that natural light can now filter into the Xintiandi atrium from all around.

A wooden trellis structure was installed around the three floors of galleries that surround the atrium. This acts a support structure for large planting boxes, which are filled with tropical greenery.

There are also some larger planters in the middle of the atrium, containing a mix of trees, leafy plants and succulents. These boxes are set on castors, so they can be easily moved around if necessary.

"Originally we wanted huge trees in the atrium planters," said Saunders, "but with the weight, and also the need for flexibility for the plaza, it made sense to reduce to a more manageable size."

AIM designed these planters, as well as a series of bench seats that are styled to feel like park furniture. They are arranged over four groups of natural-fibre carpets, which help to break down the space into zones.

"It was important for us to create areas where people could sit and not feel lost in the space," added Saunders.

The result is a space that can function as a destination in its own right, rather than simply as a transition space between the entrance and the shops.

Saunders hopes the space will become equally as vibrant as the pedestrianised streets that Xintiandi is known for.

"As an architect and resident of Shanghai, a city of 25 million, I am always very conscious of the fact that the city should have more places where people can get away of the hustle and bustle of city life," she said.

"If designed well, office lobbies and shopping mall atriums could become a new form of semi-public space."

Saunders leads AIM Architecture alongside Vincent de Graaf. Other projects by the studio include the apothecary-style Harmay beauty store in Hong Kong and Ruff Well Water Resort in Sichuan.

Photography is by Wen Studio.

Project credits

Client: SHUI ON
Design principals: Wendy Saunders, Vincent de Graaf
Project manager: Cindy Xu
Project architect: Davide Signorato
Interior team: Mavis Li, Ning Cai
FFE Team: Peichin Lee

The post AIM Architecture turns shopping mall atrium into plant-filled plaza appeared first on Dezeen.

A group of designers known as Colectivo C733 has completed a brick shopping centre in northern Mexico topped with roof volumes that bring in daylight and allow hot air to escape.

Matamoros Market takes its name from the city where it is located – Matamoros, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas – where it is set in a residential area on the outskirts.

The shopping centre was conceived for a competition calling for prototypes for public facilities in the country's vulnerable areas.

Mexico City's Colectivo C733 created a design that is intended to be durable, flexible and partly prefabricated. The collective consists of Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio, Eric Valdez, Israel Espín and José Amozurrutia.

While envisioning their proposal, the designers were influenced by a historic market in their local city.

"Designed in the manner of a plaza including a garden, the project recalls the old market of Mexico City, El Parián, built in 1688 where the Zócalo square now is," said the studio.

Rectangular in plan, Matamoros Market consists of corridors and rows of stalls organised around a central courtyard. The building is set back from the street to make way for gardens and outdoor gathering space.

The perimeter wall is made of red brick, which helps protect the interior from solar heat gain – an important consideration given that temperatures in Matamoros can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degree Celsius) in the summer.

"This brick skin is reinforced by transversal walls that separate stands and generate doorways into the main hall of the project," the team said.

The building's distinctive roof is composed of inverted, trapezoid-shaped modules that the designers refer to as "umbrellas".

The tops of the nine-by-nine-metre modules are open to the sky, enabling daylight to be funnelled to the market below, while also allowing for the escape of heat.

Prefabricated in an off-site warehouse, the modules consist of two materials.

The exterior is made of brick, which provides insulation. The interior layer, which faces the sky, is wrapped in light-toned, galvanised sheet metal – a material well suited for rainwater harvesting and heat reflection.

"The roof slope is calculated to reduce load-bearing and allow proper runoff for water and snow," the team said.

Under the roof modules are orange-coloured pillars that are spaced nice metres apart, and form a hypostyle gallery within the market. The whole system is designed to withstand hurricanes and flooding.

The corridors within the facility are oriented to connect with neighbouring recreational venues. At the core of the market is the Oasis – an open-air garden with dry-weather vegetation that is irrigated with rainwater.

"It has a flexible patio that in time will grow thicker vegetation to enhance natural shading, thermal control and provide a new silent space within the city," the team said.

The design for Matamoros Market stemmed from a competition calling for prototype ideas for public infrastructure in vulnerable areas, particularly in cities along Mexico's northern border.

The competition was initiated by the country's Secretary for Urban and Territorial Development (SEDATU) and hosted by the faculty of architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where several members of C733 teach. All five members of the collective are former UNAM students.

The faculty invited 40 professors who have architectural practices to participate. The brief called for facilities that could be designed within three months and constructed within another three months. The design also needed to be replicable in different areas.

C733 says its design was guided by three overarching strategies – the use of lightweight, prefabricated elements; the ability for material variability, so the building can adapt to different locations; and flexibility in terms of spatial configuration.

"Rather than designing a particular type of building, we thought essential to offer a flexible system for the community, capable of strengthening social bonds and a sense of belonging," the team said.

Other covered markets designed by architects include a stone-and-wood facility in France's Rhône region designed by Elisabeth Polzella, and a glass-and-metal structure designed by LUO Studio to temporarily house a market in Puyang City, China.

Photography is by Rafael Gamo.

Project credits:

Architect: Colectivo c733 (Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio, Eric Valdez, Israel Espín and José Amozurrutia); Faculty of Architecture UNAM
Collaborators: Rosendo Covarrubias, Misael Romero, Pedro Domingues
Client: SEDATU
Structural engineer: Gabinete de Ingeniería de Estructuras Especiales
Plumbing engineer: Enrique Zenón
Landscape architecture: Hugo Sánchez Paisaje
Graphic design: Latente
Model: Temas MX
Renderings: Paul Espinoza

The post Trapezoidal "umbrellas" form roof of Matamoros Market by Colectivo C733 appeared first on Dezeen.

Neutelings Riedijk Architects and Bureau Bouwtechniek have converted a railway station in Brussels into a mixed-use development, which is the largest cross-laminated timber project in Europe.

Within the former 20th-century railway shed the architecture studio has created 12 pavilions from 10,000 cubic metres of timber making it Europe's largest cross-laminated timber (CLT) project according to developer Extensa.

The goods railway sheds near Brussels' docks have been turned into a covered hall filled with shops and offices and space for events, as part of the wider Tour & Taxi development.

A glass and timber roof covers the historic steel struts of Gare Maritime. The CLT volumes below are clad in oak and surrounded by trees and indoor parks.

"The twelve pavilions create a new structure of boulevards and street, parks and squares, that follows the existing urban context and the building structure in a natural and logical way," said Neutelings Riedijk Architects co-founder Michiel Riedijk.

Using large amount of CLT was part of the plan to make the development of Gare Maritime as sustainable as possible.

CLT is made by glueing together panels of wood, a renewable material, to create a light yet sturdy construction material. For Gare Maritime, using CLT meant the structures could be prefabricated offsite to cut down construction time.

Neutelings Riedijk Architects followed the principles of the circular economy – where materials are kept in circulation rather than discarded in favour of extracting new raw materials – for the project. The modular CLT structures can be easily taken apart and the panels repurposed at a later date.

As an adaptive reuse project, Gare Maritime conserves energy and materials by making use of an existing structure instead of demolishing and building an entirely new complex in its place.

Jan de Moffarts Architects, Bureau Bouwtechniek, Ney & Partners and Boydens undertook the restoration of the old railway sheds. The riveted lattice girders and three-hinge trusses have been carefully restored and, in certain places, reinforced.

Gare Maritime also runs entirely on non-fossil fuel energy. Solar panels are included in the street-facing facade and a further ​​17,000 square metres of solar panels are installed on the roof.

Rainwater is collected to water the ten gardens, which are all planted around four different themes – woodland, flowers, grass and fragrance. Eight mosaics by Brussels-based artist Henri Jacobs also decorate the interiors.

Neutelings Riedijk Architects was founded in 1987 by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk and is based in Rotterdam.

More major CLT projects include an apartment block in Sweden by CF Møller Architects and a community college in Canada by Dialog.

Photography is by Filip Dujardin unless stated otherwise.

Project credits:

Architects: Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Bureau Bouwtechniek
Architectural design: Neutelings Riedijk Architects
Architectural design team: Michiel Riedijk, Willem Jan Neutelings, Dieter de Vos, Kenny Tang, Alejandro Mosquera Garcia, Alexey Boev, Anselmo Nižić, Frank Venhorst, Pietro Manara
Architectural engineering: Bureau Bouwtechniek
Civil and structural engineering renovation: Ney & Partners BXL
Civil and structural engineering new pavilions: Ney & Partners WOW
MEP: Boydens engineering
Building physics: Boydens engineering
Landscape architect: OMGEVING
Restoration architect: Jan de Moffarts
Interior designer: Neutelings Riedijk Architects
Artist: Henri Jacobs
Cost consultant: Bureau Bouwtechniek
Acoustics: Venac
Fire safety: FPC Risk
Main contractor: MBG
Wood contractor: Züblin
Installations contractor: Cegelec, VMA, NTSA, Van Hoey, IFTech
Project coordination, safety manager: Bopro

The post Gare Maritime in Brussels turned into a timber shopping centre appeared first on Dezeen.

A mix of retail and cultural facilities will make up the Wollert Neighbourhood Centre, which OMA has proposed for the town of Whittlesea, Australia.

The countryside complex has been designed by OMA as a "social condenser" for the area, which is located 25-kilometres north of Melbourne.

OMA founder Rem Koolhaas recently curated an exhibition aiming "to put the countryside on the agenda again" at New York's Guggenheim museum.

Alongside shops, the Wollert Neighbourhood Centre will include childcare, entertainment and cultural amenities to meet the needs of the entire suburban community.

"We conceived the Wollert Neighbourhood Centre as social infrastructure where retail and social interaction weigh equal," said OMA's regional director Paul Jones.

"Existing community activity centres in Wollert’s surrounding areas, separated from retail programs, are often under utilised. They fail to bring the community together," Jones continued.

"Our design weaves together retail, amenity and cultural spaces for use by people in the community with different needs. It will be a social condenser in the area."

Once complete, Wollert Neighbourhood Centre will encompass 9,000 square metres. As the project is at concept stage, its materiality is yet to be determined.

It will have a rectangular and "utilitarian form" that wraps around a giant open courtyard at its centre.

This courtyard will contain an amphitheatre for community events alongside public outdoor space.

To ensure it is accessible, OMA will position multiple entrances across the building's elongated facade that offer direct access to the courtyard as well as inside the building.

Inside, the rest of the building's facilities will be arranged by OMA in vertical zones to evoke a barcode.

These will include retail, entertainment and childcare programmes and according to the studio they will all place an emphasis on health and wellbeing.

Wollert Neighbourhood Centre will be complete by an accessible roof that will be developed into areas dedicated to sports and outdoor activities.

As the scheme develops, OMA also hopes the rooftop will also provide space for urban agriculture.

Wollert Neighbourhood Centre was commissioned by the Australian retail developer Sandhurst Retail. It responds to recent development in the town that is seeing a growing number of homes.

According to OMA, the complex is hoped to become the centre of a wider masterplan for the area, which is in one of Victoria's fastest growing regions.

Founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, OMA is a Dutch architecture studio with offices in Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, Dubai, Doha and Sydney. The studio's name is an acronym for Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

Other recent projects by the studio include proposals for a residential Wafra Tower in Kuwait City, and "cliff-like" headquarters for SNCB in Brussels.

Project credits:

Architect: OMA
Regional director: Paul Jones
Project architects: Clare Johnston Team: Fedor Medek, Marcus Parviainen
Supervising partner: David Gianotten
Project manager: Case Meallin

The post OMA unveils rural culture complex for Melbourne's outskirts appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio MYT+GLVDK has created an upscale food court inside a Mexico City shopping mall with elements that take cues from Japanese and Mexican design traditions.

Cocina Abierta, or Open Kitchen, comprises several restaurants offering different world cuisines, and a variety of seating options in which to enjoy different foods.

Among the variety of dining options is a German-style Biergarten with an outdoor patio, a cocktail bar with art deco accents, and a few choices for Mexican food. Local firm MYT+GLVDK describes it as Mexico's first "multi-cuisine restaurant".

Cocina Abierta is located in the Artz Pedregal shopping centre, a mixed-used development designed by Mexican and Spanish firm Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos.

The complex also includes office space and a generous public park in the centre of the development.

A large central opening reveals a helical staircase and ramp that circle around one another, leading up to mezzanine overlooking the space.

Two restaurants, called La Imperial and Moshi-Moshi, have a more defined seating area, and are distinct from the other vendors.

La Imperial, a Mexican restaurant, was designed to "evoke the golden age of cantinas and adds baroque and late 19th-century Mexican touches", according to the studio. A patterned tile floor, an antique bar, and whitewashed brick walls are among the traditional element.

Moshi-Moshi, a Japanese eatery, has a lighter and more contemporary palette. Pale wooden booths with denim accents recall Japanese design, and the space is lit by hanging fixtures that are meant to reinterpret traditional paper lanterns.

The restaurant is laid out in four rows of booths, between which run conveyor belts carrying individual plates of sushi for diners to choose from.

"Moshi Moshi brings together the Cocina Abierta interior design with a new range of materials — including blue terrazzo, denim and wood — along with the comprehensive redesign of this renowned conveyor belt sushi restaurant," said MYT+GLVDK.

The Mexico City studio is a newly formed firm that resulted from the merger of two offices, led respectively by husband and wife Andrés Mier y Terán and Regina Galvanduque.

Galvanduque also completed the Ryo Kan hotel in the city's Cuauhtémoc neighbourhood, which is designed to merge Mexican materials and Japanese traditions.

Other restaurant projects in Mexico City include a "cave-like" space by Michan Architecture that is illuminated by oversized, prismatic skylights, and a small Italian restaurant by Taller ADG that is located within a board-formed concrete vault.

Photography is by Isa Arjona.

The post MYT+GLVDK completes eclectic food court Cocina Abierta in Mexico City appeared first on Dezeen.

The Link is a rib-vaulted timber passageway built between the Chadstone shopping centre and its neighbours by Make in Melbourne.

The Link docks to the existing arched fibreglass roof of the Chadstone, which claims to be the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere.

Supported by a steel foundations and a structure of white tubes, the 15-metre-high arches are constructed from Italian larch glulam.

The canopy is made from stretched, semi-translucent PTFE.

This 110-metre-long covered route provides a new connection to both the Chadstone MGallery by Sofitel hotel and the Vicinity Centres office buildings.

Part pavilion, part landscaping and part circulation, the fabric covering forms and arcade-like series of openings along the edge of the structure.

The openings allow it to merge with the surrounding areas while providing cross ventilation.

A series of moving walkways and stairs manage the upwards change in level across the site from north to south, allowing it to connect directly with both levels of an adjacent carpark.

"Landscaping, stairs and travelators have been carefully positioned to create areas to dwell and relax, as well as space for a new restaurant to spill out and flexible areas for events and pop-up uses," explained Make Architects.

"The simplicity of its materials belies the complexity of the diagrid structure which essentially acts as a harmonica – each element holding the other in position, albeit supported by hidden steel foundations," said the practice.

This structure is left visible on the interior.

The timber arches form a dramatic, cathedral-style procession lined on either side by a rows of native evergreen climbing plants.

Currently an area of restaurant seating occupies the upper landing of the space.

The entire length of The Link is envisioned as a flexible spaces that can cater for a wide range of activities.

Make Architects were engaged as the design architects, local practice Cera Stribley Architects acted as the delivery architects for the project.

Inside the Chadstone Shopping Centre, Melbourne practice One Design Office designed a multicoloured concrete ice cream bar for Scroll Ice Cream's flagship location.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

The post Make completes dramatic arched link for Chadstone shopping centre appeared first on Dezeen.

K11 Musea is a shopping centre on the Tsim Sha Tsui harbour-front in Hong Kong, designed by an architecture team led by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The retail development is clad in Portuguese limestone, with 4,600 square metres of green walls and a green roof featuring urban farms.

The ten-storey complex is cultural centre for the wider Victoria Dockside development of billionaire property developer Adrian Cheng.

Also led by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the Victoria Dockside includes the 65-storey Rosewood Hotel , the K11 Artus serviced apartments and the K11 Atelier office building.

"The goal of K11 Musea is to become the silicon valley of culture in Hong Kong, injecting art, architecture, design, sustainability and all forms of culture into new consumers' daily lives," said Cheng.

K11 Musea is the work of over 100 collaborators, including Rotterdam-based OMA, landscape designers James Corner Field Operations and local architecture practice LAAB Architects.

Other recent retail openings in Hong Kong include a fashion store filled with honeycomb sculptures and a beauty shop lined with steel shelves.

The stepped form of K11 Musea is surrounded ground level by an arcade-like run of luxury shopping destinations and restaurants.

Inside, the bronze-coloured atrium has a 35-metre-high oculus, shining down on a geodesic ball-shaped exhibition space that merges with the balconies of the upper levels.

This atrium is lined with hand-stamped aluminium panels, designed by LAAB Architects to resemble the root system of a tree.

Outside, a sunken plaza wrapped in a curved glass wall provides an amphitheatre-like space, which will host performances and cultural events.

A rooftop garden is dotted with canopies and structures, including a slide shaped like a peacock designed by Danish playground designers Monstrum.

The slide sits among elliptical sections of lawn  and plant beds, surrounded by small urban farms to grow ingredients for the shopping centre's restaurants.

Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA have designed an anodised metal coffee-kiosk that will also occupy the site. Called Kube, the kiosk sits below a large floating balloon that doubles as a canopy.

An annexe to the main centre, called Muse Edition, repurposes an original waffle ceiling from the 1970s. It now covers a new MoMA Design Store, with an interior designed by Edge Design.

A rotating collection of public and site-specific art will occupy the grounds of the centre, with a particular focus on promoting the work of Hong Kong designers.

Kohn Pedersen Fox have recently completed several large-scale projects, including the mixed-use Robinson Tower in Singapore and the CITIC Tower - Beijing's tallest skyscraper.

Project credits:

Victoria Dockside Masterplan:
Lead architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Executive architect: Ronald Lu and Partners
Sustainability consultant: Arup
Lead architect: James Corner Field Operations
Landscape executive architect: Urbis

K11 Musea:
Overall lead architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Executive architect: Ronald Lu and Partners
Façade design, sunken plaza, atrium, Gold Ball, Doughnut Playhouse: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Entrance, Nature Discovery Park:PLandscape
Schematic design of Opera Theatre: AB Concepts
Escalating Climbers, Oculus, Bohemiam Pavilion, Arches, Hexagons + Ovals, Nature Discovery Park Conservatory: LAAB Architects
Krescent Planter, The Bohemiam Garden: James Corner Field Operations
Peacock Playground: Monstrum
Visual Corridor: Leigh + Orange
Lighting: Speirs + Major
KUBE: OMA
Victoria (chandelier): Lasvit

The post Green wall cascades down K11 Musea shopping centre in Hong Kong appeared first on Dezeen.

As America's suburban shopping malls are becoming ghost towns, Aaron Betsky argues that their complex architecture character means that they deserve more serious consideration.

Once shopping had style. What you bought, where you bought it, and perhaps even what you wore when you bought it mattered. The stores, the stuff, and you all had to look good.

Before brand experience magnets on Fifth Avenue and discount outlet malls everywhere else, the temple of buying was the suburban shopping mall. Now dead malls, like zombies, inhabit our landscape, sucking the life out of our cities and suburbs with their acres of parking lots and windowless boxes.

They have given birth to websites and blogs that document their ghoulish persistence long after the last Foot Locker has closed. Their heyday is the setting for the current season of one of the most popular and haunting shows on television, Stranger Things.

Now dead malls, like zombies, inhabit our landscape

Now their reuse is even a Presidential platform. Some of them are turning into colleges or libraries, while others are becoming spaces for the eager beavers of the gig economy. Surely, they will soon all – other than the very fanciest temples to high fashion experiences – disappear. I miss them already.

Just to be clear: I don't mean all malls, but the ones that have become ghosts: the suburban malls catering to the middle class. What I will miss about them, for all their faults, is their style.

They were anchored by one or two department stores, sometimes even more, that could range from Sears at the low end all the way up to Neiman Marcus at the top.

Their core would be a food court, which, especially after the 1980s, could also include such entertainment offerings as multiplex cinemas.

They were closed worlds, with no windows penetrating their facades beyond the entryways that invited you in from the parking areas that surrounded them. Their surfaces were hard and gleaming, both to be easy to clean and maintain, and to add a sheen to the experience.

Their central spaces were skylit and might host concerts or community raffles. They were, above all else, air conditioned.

They had a character that was more complex than you might think at first

They also had a character that was more complex than you might think at first. There was, for instance, the Gruen Transfer: named after the architect who designed the first of all them outside of Minneapolis.

It was the moment when the directed shopper, who had entered the mall to buy some underwear, became distracted by something they saw in a window, and started wandering.

Malls were designed to encourage that moment happening as soon as possible by bumping some stores forward into your line of sight, and by doing away with a single path.

The biggest malls' arms meandered towards the anchors and around the central atrium and its food court, helping you on the way to becoming lost and laden with shopping bags.

The stores seduced you in with floor to ceiling glass, visibility into all they had to offer, and an absence of corners. Everything was angles, from the shape of the floorplan to the transition between floor, wall and ceiling, so that you never encountered any obstacles, visual or otherwise.

The materials were slick and sleek, with a high degree of reflectivity, but in neutral colours so as not to compete with the merchandise.

There was a hierarchy to the malls as well, with a differentiation in class of stores between different wings and a rhythm from high traffic stores at the beginning and end of the sequence to lower attractors in the middle.

Shoe stores, whose proliferation always marked the downward trend in a mall, were given the least desirable locations. Later, carts and kiosks began gumming up the passageways in a desperate attempt to increase sales square footage and provide more distractions, but until then the aisles were meant to be places of movement and even flaneuring.

By the time the suburban mall was in its death spiral, it was the place where most Americans lived

As such, the malls performed an important social function to at least two distinct groups. First there were the teenagers, whose suburban life gave them little to no social space – let alone one in a temperate and controlled environment – to meet each other.

The social life of most suburbanites between the ages of 10 and 18 revolved around the malls, and especially their food courts. Their presence was balanced by that of the older people, usually retired, who also used the malls as social spaces, as well as places to exercise by walking its snaking corridors.

All of these factors, from the uses these malls had to their design, meant that they developed a manner of appearance that, if it was by no means uniform, provided a certain framework for suburban life.

It was the architecture equivalent of the car, as well as the fashion and home decor, that was the lived reality of those places where, by the time the suburban mall was in its death spiral, was the place where most Americans lived.

But, because they were seen as ugly and default (semi) public spaces, they were not studied, let alone designed, with the care lavished on most urban phenomena, from grand hotels to skyscrapers.

Certainly, few of these malls were beautiful from the perspective of traditional architecture, and they were non-sustainable energy hogs that demanded car travel and destroyed any sense of coherence around them because of their closed nature and the parking lots that surrounded them.

Yet the best of them, like Fox Hills Mall, the one the late Cesar Pelli designed in Los Angeles, or the inadvertently majestic South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, were meccas with superb qualities.

What is more, the very best malls appeared towards the end of the phenomenon's lifecycle, when both developers and architects felt it necessary to break out of the box.

They were seen as ugly and default public spaces, they were not studied, let alone designed

The theatre of shopping that was Horton Plaza, now condemned to becoming another place for gig-economy workers, was the best of Jon Jerde's attempts to turn labyrinths into sweeping curves and places of gathering into abstracted replicas of European villages.

The Mall of America outside of Minneapolis became a hybrid between a theme park and a shopping destination. In Miami, malls turned into jungles with stores dotted through them, a movement given further force by New Urbanism, which helped malls turn into replicas of gridded streets with all dirt and diversity conveniently still hidden out of sight.

Then the party was over, although the biggest and most open of the malls continue to thrive. The middle-class suburban mall will not disappear completely. It will morph into a town centre for newly densifying exurban locations, will go upscale as a collection of discrete shopping experiences, or will turn into hybrids like one in San Jose, which offers a community college, living-above-the-store, and shopping.

What we will lose is the mediocre labyrinth, the big box that had everything and where you could see all kinds of Americans, the place of gathering under fluorescent lights and air conditioning, the seduction of all modern, human-made, streamlined surfaces removing all barriers between us and what we desired. For all that, I will miss the suburban mall.

Photograph of Westfield Culver City Shopping Center is by Mall Expert.

The post "The best suburban malls were meccas with superb qualities" appeared first on Dezeen.

Thomas Heatherwick explains his desire to create a new public space for London in this exclusive video interview Dezeen filmed at the recently opened Coal Drops Yard shopping centre in King's Cross.

Designed by Heatherwick Studio, the Coal Drops Yard contains shops arranged in two converted 19th-century coal warehouses, connected by roofs that curve out to touch each other. Between the two linear buildings is a publicly accessible space.

"Coal Drops Yard is a new major public space for London, which is framed by retail, so it's like a new shopping street," Heatherwick says in the video.

Coal Drops Yard is the latest building completed within the King's Cross development. It stands alongside Granary Square between Central St Martins and Wilkinson Eyre's Gasholders apartments.

Heatherwick wants the development to be a space the public can visit and enjoy within the development.

"Our job was to make a new public space for London. This area has been transformed over the last 18 years from a place that was closed off and not accessible," he says.

"We hope that this will be a new heart for the district."

Like the adjacent art school and apartments, the Coal Drops Yard shopping centre is built within a historic industrial building.

"It's been made from two Victorian structures, which originally were the ends of [the railway] lines that went all the way up to the north of England to the coal mines," explains Heatherwick.

Heatherwick Studio connected the two Victorian buildings by extending the form of the roofs towards each other so that they touch above the central space.

"In the centre, the two main linear structures are stitched together with a new level with 20,000-square-foot of new space. The roofs are made from the same slate of 170 years ago, from the same seam in Wales in order to make this sort of kissing point where the two buildings touch," the designer continues.

"There's a new, quite major engineering, technical solution in making column-free structure that leans, and holds itself, and fuses together, and then comes back into the existing linear structures."

The shopping centre is Heatherwick's first major building in London. His studio is currently also working to turn London's Olympia into cultural hub.

Photography is by Luke Hayes, unless stated.

The post Thomas Heatherwick hopes Coal Drops Yard will be "new heart" for King's Cross appeared first on Dezeen.

Thomas Heatherwick's studio has completed a shopping centre at London's King's Cross, formed of two converted 19th-century coal warehouses that reach out and touch one another.

Heatherwick Studio created Coal Drops Yard by converting and extending two Victorian industrial buildings that were built to store and transfer coal, delivered by rail from northern England, across London.

They are connected by a sinuous roof, designed to make it look like the old buildings were physically stretched towards each other.

Coal Drops Yard contains 9,290 square metres of shops and restaurants, arranged inside the linear two buildings on either side of a central space.

"When thinking about these unusual structures, we were thinking, how could we make this something that isn't like a shopping mall?" explained Thomas Heatherwick during a tour of the building.

"How could we make something that was a true shopping street for London? Something that was porous, with many routes and entrances."

The decision to connect the gabled roofs of the east and west coal drops was instigated by the developer. Argent had asked the studio to create two bridges connecting the two buildings –  but the design team came up with a more unusual idea.

They decided to link the buildings at roof level to form a focal point, or "heart", for the shopping centre, which people could gather beneath.

"Our interest in our studio is the human dimension of any project that we work on, whether its a bus, a bridge, a ship or whatever," said Heatherwick.

"It struck us that the issue was bigger that two bridges. It felt to us the challenge was to create a heart that would hold you and glue everything together, and make you more likely stay. The heart factor seems key."

The 35-metre-wide curved roof extension is supported by a 52-column steel structure, which is threaded within the fabric of the 19th-century buildings.

The extended gabled roofs are clad with blue-grey roof slates drawn from the same Welsh quarry as the ones used on the original Victorian structures. The space suspended above the street, which is glazed on both sides, is set to become a Samsung store.

Heatherwick Studio rationalised the historic buildings to make them suitable as a shopping centre. The majority of the shops are arranged along the central street on two levels – accessed from the ground floor of the central space, or from the two viaducts that run alongside either buildings.

The shops range in scale from 15 to 1,800 square metres.

"We had two buildings facing each other, at quite a distance from each other, part of our work was to take a hotchpotch of different levels within these two industrial structures, and find a way to rationalise them – enough, but not too much – so  they could actually work and allow people to flow through to become a functioning public space for London," said Heatherwick.

"It was key to let people flow. Movement was absolutely key."

The shopping centre is the latest of many developments on the huge King's Cross site. It stands between Stanton Williams' conversion of a granary building into a home for Central St Martins art and design school and Wilkinson Eyre's housing development within the Gasholders.

Also in the development, David Chipperfield Architects and Morris and Co have designed offices. Meanwhile plans are underway to create office space for Facebook and the UK headquarters of Google, which Heatherwick Studio is designing with BIG.

Heatherwick hopes that the Coal Drops Yard will become a new gathering space within this large modern development, which is largely made up of offices. To do this, it was important to create a building that was interesting.

"Our interest is making an amazing place. The shopping is the excuse for a place," said Heatherwick. "Church used to be a place where people come together, or libraries were places people come together, community centres were places people came together."

"To be with your fellow humans is more precious than ever. You don't have to go out. So somewhere has to mean something and not be generic duplicate, which you may have got away with 20 or 30 years ago before the digital revolution."

Photography is by Luke Hayes, unless stated. Main image is by Hufton + Crow.

Projects credits:

Design: Heatherwick Studio
Design director: Thomas Heatherwick
Group leader: Lisa Finlay
Project leader: Tamsin Green
Project team: Jennifer Chen, Andrew Edwards, Daniel Haigh, Phil Hall-Patch, Steven Howson, Sonila Kadillari, Michael Kloihofer, Nilufer Kocabas, Elli Liverakou, Ivan Linares Quero, Mira Naran, Ian Ng, Thomas Randall-Page, Emmanouil Rentopoulos, Dani Rossello Diez, Angel Tenorio, Takashi Tsurumaki, Pablo Zamorano
Client: Argent
Developer: KCCLP, Argent
Heritage consultant: Giles Quarme & Associates
Structural and facade engineer: Arup
M&E / sustainability: Hoare Lea
Lighting designers: Speirs and Major
Cost consultant: Gardiner and Theobald
Delivery architect: BAM Design
Slate manufacturer: Welsh Slate

The post Heatherwick Studio joins roofs of two warehouses at Coal Drops Yard shopping centre appeared first on Dezeen.

The KWG M Cube shopping centre in Beijing, designed by MVRDV, is covered in hand-glazed iridescent ceramic tiles that change colour in different lights.

Dutch architecture firm MVRDV devised the subtle yet eye-catching rainbow facade for the multi-faceted mall to be a happy middle ground between the developer KWG Group Holdings's wish for a building that would stand out, and the city government's caveat that it suit its surrounding.

Rather than cover the shopping centre in bright LED lights, the architects covered each side of the 36-metre high building in opalescent tiles. Some sides are completely covered in the tiles, with other planes tiled in an interlocking checkerboard pattern that forms a perforated screen.

Each ceramic tile was hand-glazed in China, with three layers applied and fired at different temperatures to create the pearlescent effect.

"We designed the KWG M Cube so that the building continuously displays new patterns and colours. Depending on the weather and light conditions and where you stand, the facade might look subtly grey, or it might shine with all the colours of the rainbow," said Jacob van Rijs, principal architect and co-founder of MVRDV.

"In this part of Beijing, there are restrictions on architecture and many nearby buildings are completed in shades of grey and beige. Our solution allowed us to do exactly what the client and the city wanted: to create an attractive visual statement in which exuberance and modesty go hand in hand."

The 40,000-square-metre, seven-storey shopping centre is split into two sections. Downstairs, the lower three floors contain mostly shops and is only open during the day. The upper levels contain bars, restaurants and cafes, and can be accessed at night via an express lift to the fourth floor lobby.

Open air roof terraces in each level provide an outdoor space for visitors during good weather, with views towards local landmarks including the Forbidden City.

Rotterdam-based MVRDV has form when it comes to glistening buildings. A recently completed entertainment complex project from the Dutch firm in South Korea featured buildings with golden facades, and a planned office block in Germany will be covered in crystal-like mirrors.

In Beijing, Architect Ole Scheeren recently completed an art museum with a grey basalt stone facade punctuated by circular light windows, and MAD built a skyscraper complex with an undulating facade of glossy black.

Photography by Seth Powers Photography.

The post MVRDV builds Beijing shopping centre covered in shimmering ceramic tiles appeared first on Dezeen.

Architectural photographer Cristobal Palma has taken a series of photos revealing the 46 spiralling shopping centres built across Chile in the 1970s and 80s.

Known as caracoles, meaning snails, these unusual buildings are believed to have taken inspiration from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The floors gently slope to form a spiral, meaning visitors can work their way up or down each building without needing to use stairs or a lift.

"The caracoles, which is what these shopping centres were generically called, are a very Chilean architectural phenomenon," explained Palma, who is based in Santiago.

"These buildings try to connect a series of ascending levels to the pedestrians on the street via a rising circular ramp, but instead of showing art on the perimeter walls, what you find are small commercial units."

Palma found 26 of these structures found in the capital, plus a further 17 dotted across other Chilean cities.

The photographer has captured each one from the same angle – facing straight into the central atrium, where the spiral is revealed.

Some of these atriums are simply round or rectangular, while other have more elaborate curved or angular shapes.

According to Palma, the shopping centres are a dying breed. Not only have they struggled to compete with the modern mall, but they have also become symbolic of a turbulent period in the nation's history.

"This architectural experiment might be one of the most interesting recent phenomena that has nonetheless been ignored by the academy in Chile and elsewhere," he told Dezeen.

"This lack of interest might be explained by the obvious sense of failure that the experiment has come to acquire over the years. The snail typology never managed to recover from the impact of the arrival of malls in the city in the early 1980s, and the way the city itself started to develop based on more widespread car use," he continued.

"But perhaps the main reason it's hard to pay greater attention to these buildings is their apparent banality. The period that saw this series being developed corresponds to the first phase of the Pinochet dictatorship – one of the most tragic and bloodiest periods in Chile's history."

"If the mall symbolises the triumph of the neoliberal city propelled by Pinochet's economic reforms, the caracoles seem to represent the final link in an interrupted city that never managed to be reconnected again."

Palma is one of the world's best-known architectural photographers, and earlier this year was included in Dezeen's list of photographers to follow on Instagram.

In an interview with Dezeen in 2014 Palmer stated that "everyone is becoming an expert in image-making", and that Facebook, Instagram and Flickr are posing a serious challenge to professional photographers.

Recent architectural projects he has photographed include a stables in Chile designed by Matias Zegers Architects and a Barclay & Crousse-designed clifftop villa in the Peruvian desert.

The post Chile's Guggenheim-inspired "caracoles" captured in photos by Cristobal Palma appeared first on Dezeen.

Thomas Heatherwick explains his thinking behind the design of the soon-to-open Coal Drops Yard shopping centre, in this video filmed in King's Cross, London.

Heatherwick Studio is combining two 19th century buildings that were once used for storing coal into a canal-side shopping destination, which is due to open next month.

This video shows Heatherwick walking from his studio, which has been based in King's Cross for 17 years, to the new development, as he explains how the building's design came about.

"As a local person I was thinking what's missing, how do you do something that is really particular to here?" Heatherwick says in the video.

Heatherwick Studio's design for the Coal Drops Yard merges the two existing buildings by curving the two gabled roofs towards each other.

"Our breakthrough, in a way, was realising that we grow those [roofs], grow them together, because the roofs needed replacing," says Heatherwick. "And in replacing the roofs we could fuse those roofs together, as if it heals into a heart."

In the film Lisa Finlay, group leader at Heatherwick Studio, further explains the thinking behind the connection between the two 19th century buildings.

She says that the elements structures was integrated into the historic buildings without adding any additional load to the them.

"We tried all sorts of ideas of just adding something new, and the way we were adding it where they were quite separate just didn't work," she says.

"It was only when we started to merge the language of the old with the new, and that's when we started to have multiple ideas of things emerging from the existing forms."

Coal Drops Yard is the latest phase of the redevelopment of the area around King's Cross station in central London.

The shopping centre stands between the Central Saint Martins school campus and Wilkinson Eyre's recently completed Gas Holders. The former offices for the coal yards have recently been converted into a headquarters and studio for Tom Dixon, which also contains a restaurant.

The post Coal Drops Yard designed to be "particular to here" says Thomas Heatherwick appeared first on Dezeen.

Blloku Cube – a mixed-use block with a facade of aluminium triangles, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti – is now under construction in the Albanian capital.

The seven-storey building is set to boast an intricate facade made up of three-dimensional aluminium triangles, which will act as a sunscreen to shade its glazed walls.

Blloku Cube takes its name from its form, and the central Tirana neighbourhood that it is located in.

It is roughly the shape of a cube, with a square ground floor plan measuring approximately 30 metres by 30 metres. The lower two floors of the 1,116-square-metre building will contain a shopping centre, with five storeys of office space above.

A roof garden restaurant will occupy the top of the building.

The bespoke facade will front all of the office floors, as well as the upper level of retail.

Renderings show the triangles taking on a range of golden shades, as they reflect light from different angles.

"The resulting effect is that of a vibrant and iridescent surface, a pattern of aluminum triangles playing with the sunlight to create reflections in different nuances of colour," said Stefano Boeri, founding partner of Stefano Boeri Architetti.

"This particular cladding solution, specifically designed for our first Albanian project, plays an essential role in defining the uniqueness of the building and contributes to underling its importance as a new landmark of this urban district", added Francesca Cesa Bianchi, project director for the studio.

The block is one of several big architecture projects buildings underway in Tirana.

BIG has designed a bow-tie-shaped theatre for the city, while MVRDV is planning to convert the city's pyramidal monument to communism into a technology education centre.

Stefano Boeri Architetti is also working on three new schools for the Albanian capital, which will remain open 24-hours a day to double up as community centres.

Images are courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti.

Project credits: 

Architect: Stefano Boeri Architetti
Client: Invest society
Consultants: SCE Project, E.S.A. engineering, Albana Kocollari (ANK Architects), Helidon Kokona, Llambi Karamani (Xhenlux), Petrit Hoxhaj
Design group: Stefano Boeri, Francesca Cesa Bianchi, with Jona Arkaxhiu, Orjana Balla, Marco Bernardini, Agostino Bucci, Carlotta Capobianco, Moataz Faisal Farid, Yulia Filatova, Shilong Tan, Andrea Zucchi

The post Construction of golden cube building by Stefano Boeri Architetti begins in Tirana appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese firm Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei has completed a 272-metre high office skyscraper in Taipei, which is adjoined to a retail building clad in a delicate metal lattice.

The Taipei Nanshan Plaza project is situated in the Xinyi district, alongside Taiwan's tallest building, the supertall Taipei 101 skyscraper.

The Tokyo-based architecture studio won a government-led development competition to design the building for Nanshan Life Insurance. The firm's offices occupy the majority of the tower, which also contains restaurants on the top three floors.

Taipei Nanshan Plaza was built on a long and narrow site in the evolving business district that contains shopping, arts facilities and exhibition spaces, laid out on a masterplan drawn up by the Taiwanese government.

"In order to attract visitors to the site and create a lively atmosphere, we proposed a new landmark tower to draw people from a distance, paired with a human-scale podium to welcome them in," said Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei.

"The idea was for the 272-metre tower to form a set with Taipei 101, creating a new skyline for the city while harmonising with the existing neighbourhood."

The architects added that the building's design is "inspired by the image of two hands joined in a prayer of thanks and peace", and "expresses the insurance company's gratitude toward its customers and desire for them to enjoy health and peace."

The tower is adjoined on either side by a low-rise retail annex and a cultural facility containing a multipurpose hall that enhances the site's connection with the surrounding neighbourhood.

The retail building features three stacked cubes that overlap in alternating directions to create an effect evoking "hands placed on top of one another".

The building's facades are clad in a three-dimensional stainless-steel lattice that references plum blossoms, the natural flower of Taiwan.

The cultural annex also features a symbolic form comprising a faceted trussed shell that recalls outstretched hands welcoming visitors from the street.

In the evening, a rooftop bar at the peak of the tower helps to transform the site into a beacon visible from across the neighbourhood.

The exterior of the retail building is also illuminated at night, which highlights the metallic facade treatment and causes trees on the terraces to be silhouetted against the glowing backdrop.

Taipei Nanshan Plaza and Taipei 101 are set to be joined by a skyscraper hotel. The 280-metre-tall Taipei Sky Tower, which is designed to look like a bamboo shoot, is set to complete in 2020.

Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha unless stated.

Project credits:

Architecture: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei
Structural engineer: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei and Evergreen Consulting Engineering
Mechanical engineer: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, GHIA Engineering Consultants, Jiesheng HVAC Engineering, Yuan Dah Fire Fighting Engineering, Ming Shuei Engineering
Lighting Design: CMA Lighting Design
Construction supervision: Archasia Design Group
FFE coordinator: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei
Art coordination: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei
Project management: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei

The post Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei completes "landmark tower and human-scale podium" in Taipei appeared first on Dezeen.

Claudio Silvestrin Architects has completed a shopping outlet in Turin, Italy, that features a 111-metre-high "modern medieval spire".

Built alongside a major road on the outskirts of the city, the Torino Outlet Fashion Village contains 81 shops arranged around two open-air streets.

Claudio Silvestrin Architects marked the location of the 32,000-metre-square shopping centre with a gleaming white tower that stands at the centre of its 290-metre-long facade.

"To communicate the location of the project clearly and effectively with an architectural element was the real challenge," said Claudio Silvestrin, founder of Claudio Silvestrin Architects.

"As an alternative to skyscrapers, common glass-and-concrete towers containing 'boxes', or other such mega-structures that so frequently mark and disturb contemporary urban landscapes, in a moment of lightness I created a purely symbolic vertical element, in appearance devoid of any functional purpose."

The freestanding obelisk rises from either side of the pedestrian entrance to the shopping centre, with the two sections connecting to form a triangular form.

"It functions as the gate-entrance into the fashion mall and, at the same time, as the gate-icon of the territory," continued Silvestrin.

"A modern medieval spire, it is just as assertive by day as it is by night; a purely symbolic element, soaring high up into the sky, but at the same time inviting and signalling the horizon, just as church bell towers did in the past."

Each of the two pedestrianised streets are flanked with shops on either side, with a colonnade running down one side.

Trees are planted along the streets, while water features are placed at intersections and at the centre of the shopping outlet.

The Torino Outlet Fashion Village is one of several shopping centres completed recently. Others include UNStudio's Lane 189 in Shanghai, and a shopping complex in Miami designed by OMA.

Also, earlier this year, it was announced that the late Will Alsop's only African project will be a shopping centre in Kenya.

Photography by Aldo Castoldi.

Project credits:

Clients: Gruppo Stilo and Torino Fashion Village
Design concept and artistic supervision: Claudio Silvestrin (Principal) Mariachiara Suriani (Project Architect)
Co-ordination and project management: Cogestil
Engineering: BMS Progetti
Lighting concept: Claudio Silvestrin
Green areas planning concept: Claudio Silvestrin
Municipal Project: Studio De8 Associati Artecna
Thermomechanical, electrical and special systems engineering: Manens-Tifs
Landscaping design: Laura Dal Canto with Luisa Perona and Cristina Gragnolati
Site development: Artecna – Sertec

The post Huge obelisk marks entrance to Torino Outlet Fashion Village by Claudio Silvestrin Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The late Will Alsop's studio All Design, has designed a shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya, will feature a monorail with "jellybean" carriages and a "piano staircase".

All Design has won planning permission for The Beacon, which was designed by studio founder Alsop before he passed away earlier this year.

It is the first new project revealed by the London-based team since then, and will become Alsop's only built project on the African continent.

Proposed for central Nairobi, The Beacon is described by All Design as an open-air mall. It will contain 24,300 square metres of shops and restaurants, topped with a roof garden and bar.

According to the design team, the shopping centre is designed around the theme of a sweet factory to "fulfil Alsop's desire that architecture should always be fun".

The building's main facade will be typical of Alsop's bright and playful designs, with monochrome porcelain panels broken by a large red box.

Inside, the shopping centre will contain several fun flourishes. As well as the jellybean-inspired monorail and piano-key staircase, there will be fairground rides including a helter-skelter and a merry-go-round.

Walkways will be sheltered by colourful fabric canopies, while a rooftop canopies will boast a thatched roof.

"The Beacon is intended to bring delight to locals and tourists," said a statement from the practice. "The vivid colours and striking patterns of the facade will hint at the amusements and leisure facilities inside."

A seven-storey office tower will stand alongside the shopping centre. Both this and the shopping centre are backed by London- and Nairobi-based developer Kiloran, and are expected to complete in 2020.

"We were intrigued by Kiloran's ideas for this mall in Nairobi and were pleased to be able create an open-air mall with a focus on sustainability, fun and family which we believe to be key drivers on future international mall design," said Marcos Rosello, co-founder of All Design.

Will Alsop passed died on 12 May 2018, aged 70, following a short illness. Described as "one of architecture's biggest characters and talents", his legacy includes the turquoise Peckham Library in London and the stilted Sharp Centre in Ontario.

The Beacon marks the continuation of the work of All Design, which he founded in 2011. It joins a series of large-scale proposals for Nairobi, which has become a centre for Africa's tech innovations.

Other recent proposals in the city includes a 30-storey wedge-shaped tower by Richard Keep and Henry Goss. Meanwhile, Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architect is overseeing the masterplan for the under-construction Konza Techno City.

Project credits:

Architect: All Design
Client: Kiloran
Design Team: Will Alsop, Marcos Rosello, Lucy Atlee, Amanda Callaghan, Kate Tseng, Ned Drury, Tom Bower, Helen Lee, Daniel Lee, Jacob Dix
Local architect: DMJ
Engineer: Anguloraso

The post Will Alsop's only African project to be fun-filled shopping centre in Nairobi appeared first on Dezeen.

Tessellating diamonds create an intricate grid of solid and void across the facade of this shopping centre that Dutch firm UNStudio has completed in Shanghai.

Called Lane 189, the seven-storey shopping centre is located in the heart of the Chinese city, in the Putuo District – an area with a diverse mix of old and new buildings.

In response, UNStudio designed a contemporary building, but gave it a facade intended to reference "old Shanghai" – in particular the patterned screens that front traditional properties.

This resulted in a facade of diamond-shaped panels that follow a hexagonal grid. Some of the aluminium-coated panels are bigger than others, and they are organised in a seemingly random pattern to create a surface that is partially opaque, and partially see-through.

"The design incorporates elements of 'old Shanghai' through geometry, pattern and materialisation, and combines these with a contemporary urban experience, thereby creating a destination with a distinctly Shanghai feel," said the design team.

"A gradient transition from bigger to smaller facade components regulates the exposure of the inside to the outside, and enhances the main entrance of the building."

To exaggerate the contrast between solid and void, RGB lighting is installed behind the panels to create a variety of visual effects at different times of day, or for special occasions.

Led by architect Ben van Berkel, UNStudio is based in Amsterdam. The firm has had several projects in China in recent years, including a shopping centre in Wuhan covered in silver balls and a series of pavilions for the Qingdao Horticultural Expo.

Like those two projects, as well some others still in the works, Lane 189 is fairly organic in shape. The majority of its surfaces are curved, and its large windows feature heavily rounded edges.

One particular window wraps around the corner of the building, and is sunken far back from the facade. UNStudio describes it as one of the building's "urban eyes".

"These urban eyes simultaneously create large display platforms for products whilst providing balconies with views to the surroundings," said the team.

Inside, the building contains a mix of shops, restaurants and office spaces, interspersed with small kiosks. These are located on curved floorplates and organised around a large atrium, lit naturally via a generous skylight.

"When seen from below, the rounded plateaus resemble a cohesive, layered organic structure, however when looking down from above the programmes of the plateaus are revealed," added the team.

Van Berkel founded UNStudio in 1988 with partner Caroline Bos. The studio ranked at number 55 on the inaugural Dezeen Hot List.

Its most prolific projects include the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, the curvaceous new train station in Arnhem and the nearly complete Canaletto tower in London.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Project credits:

Architect: UNStudio
Team: Ben van Berkel, Hannes Pfau, Severin Ignaz Tuerk, Kyle Ching-Yu Chou, Alexander Schramm, Adriana Rodriguez Ossio, Caroline Filice Smith, Lukas Allner, Tamim Salah EI Negm, Yuan Duran Zhai, Justin Tao Cheng, Cristina Gimenez, Bloom Shao Kai Hou, Eric Zhu, Yuwei Wang, Mingxuan Xie, Edwin Hang Jiang, Joerg Lonkwitz, Fabian Alejandr Mazzola, Deepak Jawahar, Juergen Heinzel, Praneet Verma, Gordana Jakimovska, Huaiming Liao, Gang Liu, Weihong Dong
Client: CITIC Capital
Local executive architect: TJAD/UNStudio
Construction management: CITIC Capital
Facade consultant: Inhabit
Lighting consultant: Ag LICHT, LEOX Design
Landscape consultant: TJAD
Contractors: Boji, Beijing Honggao

The post UNStudio completes Shanghai shopping centre covered in diamond shapes appeared first on Dezeen.

An undulating path will curve around the roof garden of this Beijing shopping centre by American architect Andrew Bromberg, and be covered in a layer of fake snow for sledding in winter.

Hong Kong-based Bromberg of architectural firm Aedas, designed the Phase 3C building for the China World Trade Center complex in Chaoyang, the city's central business district.

The building is the fifth and final stage of the 30-year-long masterplan, which comprises 14 buildings, and aims to provide the complex with a public centre.

The building is also intended to link current and future subway lines together to enable connections over and under the Third Ring Road – a 48-kilometre route that encircles the city centre.

Bromberg proposed a building with a continuous loop that mimics the road, wrapping an elliptical volume at the centre with a large roof garden on top called the Civic Green.

The garden is set on three stepped levels and surrounded by a pathway that dips down to the entrance on one side and up at the other end.

A mix of cherry blossom and pine trees will be planted along the walkway, while in colder months artificial snow will cover the slope to create a hill for sledding.

A similar concept by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels is currently underway in Copenhagen.

The upper floors of the building surrounding the green will stagger backwards to create terraces fitted with seating areas and large trees.

An Olympic-sized ice-skating rink will occupy the centre of the building with the shops and cafes are arranged in the loop around it.

The building will also include art studios, large exhibition spaces, an organic farm, cultural and educational facilities, as well as a rock-climbing wall.

Earlier this year, the Phase 3C was awarded Best Future Project at MIPIM Awards – an annual real estate event in Cannes, France.

Along with hotels, offices, apartments, convention rooms, the complex also features the 330-metre-high China World Trade Center Tower 3 – the tallest building in Beijing.

Other projects in Chaoyang District include a complex of skyscrapers, office blocks and public spaces that Chinese firm MAD modelled on mountains.

The post Sledding path to loop around roof garden of Beijing civic centre by Andrew Bromberg appeared first on Dezeen.

The New York office of Dutch firm OMA, headed by Shohei Shigematsu, has completed a further two buildings at a new cultural district in Miami Beach to join the Faena Forum cultural centre.

The trio of OMA-designed buildings form part of the Faena District Miami Beach, which occupies a plot between Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Creek waterway, from 32nd to 35th Streets in the US city.

Japanese architect Shigematsu – who has headed OMA's New York office since 2008 – is leading the project. The vision of Argentinian hotelier and property developer Alan Faena, it will provide Miami Beach with cultural facilities including an exhibition and convert venue, a hotel, plus shopping and dining areas.

The Faena Forum and Faena Park opened earlier this week, coinciding with this year's Art Basel Miami and Design Miami, while Faena Bazaar is expected to open in March 2017. The three elements are linked by courtyards.

The 3,954-square-meter Faena Forum is made up of two conjoined volumes – a cylinder and cuboid – that can be combined or separated to create a 1,000-capacity venue for exhibitions, concerts and other events. The white facades of the building are punctured by 350 unique windows.

A wedge cut from the base of the cylinder opens up a plaza on Collins Avenue, where the building faces a new residential tower by Foster + Partners.

Inside, an amphitheatre with pink marble floors is set at ground level and an assembly hall on the upper floor is crowned by a 12-metre-dome with a glazed oculus in its centre.

From here, full-height glazing overlooks the Indian Creek and can also be used to load large-scale artworks into the building.

OMA also renovated the 1939 Atlantic Beach Hotel to create the Faena Bazaar, which will provide 1,865 square metres of shopping and events space when it opens in March 2017.

The Dutch firm preserved the original facades and lobby of the building, which was designed by Roy France, but inserted a central courtyard.

The final building in the trio, Faena Park, provides parking for 81 cars. The 2,628-square-metre building also hosts shops at street level and across its upper floor.

The automated car park uses a mechanical system to stack cars one on top of the other to make maximum use of space. A strip of glazing reveals the system to the street. A level basement provides capacity for a further 154 cars.

OMA is working on a number of projects in American including a skyscraper in New York and a park in Los Angeles.

The firm and its founder, Rem Koolhaas, placed at number 12 on the Dezeen Hot List, our comprehensive guide to the most newsworthy and searched-for players in the design world in 2016.

Project credits:

OMA partners: Shohei Shigematsu, Jason Long
Associate-in-charge: Jake Forster
Team: Clarisa Garcia Fresco, Lawrence Siu, Francesca Portesine, Ravi Kamisetti, Ted Lin, Jesung Park, Anupama Garla, Andy Westner, Daniel Queseda Lombo, Andrew Mack, Caroline Corbett, Denis Bondar, Ahmadreza Schricker, Darien Williams, Gabrielle Marcoux, Marcela Ferreira, Jenni Ni Zhan, Lisa Hollywood, Paul Tse, Sarah Carpenter, Carla Hani, Sean Billy Kizy, Simona Solarzano, Ivan Sergejev, Tamara Levy, Matthew Austin, Ben Halpern
Construction documentation project architect: Clarisa Garcia Fresco, Paxton Sheldhal (BOS|UA),
Team: Yusef Ali Denis, Slava Savova, Cass Nakashima, Ariel Poliner, Jackie Woon Bae, Matthew Haseltine, Salome Nikuradze, Simon McKenzie
Project management: Gardiner & Theobald, Inc., Claro Development Solutions Architect of Record: Revuelta Architecture International, PA
Landscape architect: Raymond Jungles
Civil engineer: Kimley-Horn and Associates
Structural engineer: DeSimone Consulting Engineers
MEP and fire engineer: Hufsey Nicolaides Garcia Suarez Consulting Engineers Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates
Elevator: Persohn Hahn Associates
Acoustic: Electro-Media Design, Ltd., Stages Consultants, LLC
Exterior building envelope: IBA Consultants
Parking: Tim Haahs Engineers
Theatre consultant: Stages Consultants, LLC
Food service consultant: Clevenger Frable and Lavallee
Architectural concrete Consultant: Reginald Hough Associates
Life safety: SLS Consulting
Security: Security Industry Specialist

The post OMA completes trio of buildings for Miami Beach cultural district appeared first on Dezeen.

London firm Acme has completed a shopping centre in Leeds, England, featuring a white latticed concrete facade and an interior modelled on old-fashioned arcades.

Victoria Gate contains a mixture of arcade-like covered shopping streets, a car park and a flagship for the department store John Lewis.

The centrepiece of the Acme-designed complex is the diagrid facade of the flagship, which is made from diagonal struts of etched concrete.

Internally, the rest of the of the shopping centre is designed to reference Leeds' historic shopping arcades. It features wide walkways paved with zigzag-patterned stonework, curving glass shopfronts and a roof of latticed steel and glass that floods the space with natural light.

"We have worked hard to create buildings that are specific to their place and time, and unmistakably a part of Leeds," said Acme director Friedrich Ludewig, who worked on the £165 million project with the developer Hammerson.

"While malls can be indistinguishable indoor worlds, arcades are covered external streets with real facades and a great sense of order and rhythm."

The John Lewis building features five shopping floors and a rooftop restaurant – making it the tallest post-war department store in the UK outside of London.

Panes of glass set into the diagonal facade illuminate some area areas of the building, while bronze- and ivory-coloured terracotta infills block the light in others. The building is connected to the arcades by a glazed link.

Next door to John Lewis, the main body of the Victoria Gate shopping centre is influenced by the art deco and Victorian buildings that surround the site.

The pleated facade, made from terracotta and rust-toned metals, is designed to create dramatic shadows across the building.

A multi-storey car park with 800 spaces is set on one corner of the development and features a facade made up of hundreds of twisting aluminium fins.

These strips of metal are spaced to allow natural ventilation and daylight to shine through.

For job opportunities at Acme, visit their company profile on Dezeen Jobs.

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

The post Diamond-shaped latticework covers Victoria Gate shopping centre by Acme appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio Archohm has completed a campus for promoting crafts in the Indian city of Lucknow, featuring a cluster of grass-roofed workshops and a spiralling shopping arcade (+ slideshow).

Awadh Shilpgram was designed by Archohm to accommodate almost 200 shops dedicated to crafts from around the region and beyond, alongside craft courts for hosting workshops, an amphitheatre, an exhibition hall and a food court.

The aim is to provide local craftspeople with a place where they can share ideas, teach, learn and sell their work directly to customers.

The buildings developed for the complex are intended to form a collage of shapes and materials that references the chaotic composition of the urban bazaars found throughout the region.

From an entrance courtyard, a spiralling structure lined with craft shops leads visitors gradually towards an open plaza at the centre of the curving building.

"An elliptical form enables a smooth corner-free circulation," explained the architects.

"It narrows down while spiralling inward, and emulates the density and vibrancy of traditional Lucknowi bazaars, which have streets that get progressively narrower."

The eight-hectare site is located close to a major highway in a rapidly developing area of the Uttar Pradesh region's capital city.

The area's historic structures also influenced the design of the campus. In particular, the arches of Agra's Buland Darwaza – also known as the Gate of Magnificence – informed an arch-lined colonnade flanking the spiralling passage.

"The arch, being an important architectural element of the architecture of the city of Lucknow, is introduced as a skin to the inner face of the buildings," the architects added, "but is given a make-over in a contemporary style with continuous access beneath it."

Perforated stone jali screens traditionally used to channel cool air into the rooms of Indian buildings are incorporated into the steel frames of the double-height arches, which allow entry to the circulation space at ground-floor level.

The intricate patterns carved into the jalis are based on traditional Chikan embroidery.

The open area at the centre of the complex contains a stepped amphitheatre that incorporates planted beds. A paved ramp provides access to the upper level, which looks down towards the circular stage.

Outside of the main spiral building, a cluster of stone-walled structures with rounded turf-covered roofs provide demonstration areas where artisans can conduct workshops observed by groups seated on benches incorporated into the inner walls.

Elsewhere on the campus is an arc-shaped exhibition hall and a food court that look onto a circular lawn with a fountain at its centre. The main buildings are clad with red Agra sandstone that helps to unify their diverse forms and functions.

Photography is by Andre Fanthome.

Project credits:

Architects: Archohm
Project team:S ourabh Gupta,Suboor Ahmad, Jeevan das and Dhanbeer Rawat

The post Awadh Shilpgram is a crafts hub influenced by traditional Indian architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's vast ribbed structure that soars over the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York is captured in these images by British photography duo Hufton + Crow (+ slideshow).

Known as the Oculus, the building is designed to bring light down into the subterranean rail station and shopping centre that quietly opened in March 2016.

It was designed by Calatrava, whose most famous projects include the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias in Valencia and an extension to the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Hufton + Crow's recent photographs show the two rows of white steel ribs that curve around each side, creating an eye shape in plan.

Glazing in between these elements brings copious amounts of light into the space, which has an open floor surrounded by two levels of shops.

The ribs angle inward to meet at the top, where another strip of operable glass arches over.

On its exterior, the ribs curve out and continue skyward to create asymmetric fins.

"Although suggestive of motifs from many traditions – the Byzantine mandorla, the wings of cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant, or the sheltering wings on Egyptian canopic urns – the form may be summed up, according to Santiago Calatrava, by the image of a bird released from a child's hands," says the architect's website.

Access to the building at street level is at both east and west ends, directly onto stairwells that project into the space high above the floor and act as viewing platforms.

Escalators take visitors down the remainder of the height.

The mall can also be reached from the PATH and subway train platforms, and concourses that connect the surrounding buildings.

The Oculus has been accessible from underground since earlier this year, but its street-level entrances only recently opened. Retail spaces are quickly filling with a variety of brands.

"The combination of natural light and sculptural form give dignity and beauty to the building's lower levels and pedestrian walkways, and provide New York City with a kind of public space it has not previously enjoyed," said Calatrava.

The transit hub forms part of the major redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in Downtown Manhattan, which was devastated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001.

Other projects that have completed in the vicinity include the SOM-designed One World Trade Center – currently the tallest skyscraper in the western hemisphere – Fumihiko Maki's shimmering Four World Trade Center tower and a museum dedicated to the attacks by Snøhetta.

The buildings are arranged around a memorial to those who died in the attacks, which comprises two giant square waterfalls on the footprints the Twin Towers that previously stood on the site.

Yet to complete is the 80-storey Three World Trade Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, which topped out in June 2016. The design for Two World Trade Center – the final skyscraper for the site – is still under discussion as developer Larry Silverstein decides between proposals by Foster + Partners or BIG.

Calatrava has also designed a Greek Orthodox Church to replace a nearby building destroyed during 9/11.

The post Calatrava's Oculus at the World Trade Center photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.

Former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs have teamed up with architects office Make to design a luxury shopping and hotel complex on the site of a 1950s synagogue in Manchester.

Ken Shuttleworth of London studio Make designed the scheme for the former Manchester United players, who run the Jackson's Row Development Company with Burnley Football Club owner Brendan Flood.

The scheme, named St Michael's, includes a five-star hotel with 200 beds, 153 apartments, 13,000 square metres of office space and a 2,800-square-metre shopping centre. Two sky bars and restaurants also feature.

The 65,000-square-metre development will be made up of two towers, positioned on a half-hectare site in the city centre.

The 31-storey North Building and 21-storey South Building will frame a split-level square designed by landscape and urban design firm Planit-IE.

No affordable homes are included in the scheme, which is intended to attract tourists and wealthy residents with a price point "very focused at the high-end".

"St Michael's will reinvigorate the last, largely disused, streets in the heart of the city," said a statement from the development group.

"This is an area that has been under-utilised for many years and in many ways a forgotten part of the city, unless people had a specific reason for being there," it added. "This is in stark contrast to the vast majority of this area where activity levels and pedestrian movements are high."

Heritage body Historic England has raised concerns about the impact of the proposal.

The Manchester Reform Synagogue – one of the oldest in the UK – a 1930s police headquarters and the 19th-century Sir Ralph Abercromby pub are facing demolition to make way for the scheme.

A new synagogue would be incorporated into the lower levels of the North Building with details of the original building such as the existing front door reused.

"We recognise that the buildings on the site are in a conservation area and have merit in heritage terms," said the Jackson's Row Development Company.

"But we have to recognise that they were purpose-built facilities that are no longer situated to or appropriate for their original purpose."

The two squares are intended to connect the scheme with other regenerated areas including the Civic Quarter, Spinning Fields and St John's that surround the site.

The Lower Square would be framed by planting and provide an outdoor seating area, while the south-facing Upper Square is designed as an open-air event space.

"The area is surrounded by a number of key regeneration areas," said the developers. "However, in its current form it contributes nothing at all to them and indeed undermines the potential to integrate these areas seamlessly."

Up to 200 car parking spaces would also be included in the basement levels of the north and south buildings for visitors and residents.

A planning application for St Michael's will be submitted following public consultation in September 2016.

This is the second time Gary Neville has worked with Make. The former Manchester United captain first commissioned the firm to create his subterranean home in the hills of north Bolton, but the flower-shaped design has yet to get off the ground.

The post Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville propose Manchester skyscrapers designed by Make appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: Oki Sato of Nendo explains the concept behind the Japanese studio's redesign of a 40,000-square-metre shopping mall, in this video Dezeen filmed in Bangkok for retail development company Siam Piwat.

Located on Bangkok's Rama 1 thoroughfare, Siam Discovery is an 18-year-old shopping centre operated by Thai company Siam Piwat. The mall reopened in May this year after a complete interior and exterior refurbishment overseen by Nendo.

At 40,000-square-metres across seven floors, Siam Discovery is Nendo's largest project to date.

However, Sato says that his overall design approach does not change much, whatever the size of the project.

"This is definitely the biggest project that we have ever done," he reveals in the movie.

"But it really doesn't make a big difference to me whether I design small packaging for chewing gum or this huge retail store. It's always about giving small smiles to people in the end."

Sato says one of his main aims for the project was to open up a series of small circular voids in the original mall to create a much larger central atrium.

"When people walk in, I wanted them to look upwards and look through the space," he explains. "In the beginning there were small voids, but we tried to connect them as much as possible so the atrium becomes more like a canyon. It's almost 60 metres wide."

One side of the atrium features a four-storey stack of 220 black and silver boxes containing video monitors, digital signage and merchandise displays, which is designed to function as a directory of what's going on in the mall.

"This wall stacked up with cubes is used like an index," Sato explains. "People can understand what's happening here in the space."

The box motif also recurs on the exterior of the building, which features a double-skin glass facade.

"In Bangkok there's a lot of strong sunlight coming in, so we needed a screen," Sato explains. "We had squares printed in two layers [on the glass]. You feel the depth and get a sense of the cubes in the atrium."

Sato describes Siam Discovery as "a hybrid of a department store and a shopping mall". It features a number of traditional concessions as well as 13 curated retail areas with products arranged thematically.

This approach to retail was conceived by Siam Piwat CEO, Chadatip Chutrakul.

"Instead of presenting products by brand, we present them by storytelling," she says. "Each place in this building has its own story."

Nendo designed each of the 13 individual themed retail points, which are united by Chutrakul's overall concept of creating a "lifestyle laboratory".

"We're not only selling products here," Sato says. "It's about experience, about inspiration and the chemical reaction."

The ladies' fashion area on the ground floor features 20 different pieces of furniture and display pedestals based on scientific diagrams, while the men's fashion zone features flasks and other lab equipment as well as shoe displays based on the double-helix structure of DNA molecules.

Other areas include Street Lab, which sells sportswear, as well as a space for electronics called Digital Lab, which features huge microscope-shaped displays illuminated by integrated lighting.

Previously, Nendo has designed everything from a transparent plastic rocking horse to a line of T-shirts featuring versions of the Hello Kitty character reinterpreted for a male audience.

The Japanese studio's previous retail work has included the womenswear department at iconic Milanese department store la Rinascente, and a women's fashion floor for the Seibu Shibuya store in Tokyo featuring a pastel palette and zigzag patterns.

Chutrakul says that she only ever had one person in mind to refurbish Siam Discovery.

Subscribe to Dezeen's YouTube channel for the latest architecture and design movies

"I have been a big fan of Nendo for many years, especially Oki Sato." "So when I thought about this new concept, I knew it was only him I should work with."

This movie was filmed by Dezeen in Bangkok, Thailand, for Siam Piwat. Photographs used in this story are by Takumi Ota, unless otherwise stated.

The post Siam Discovery shopping centre in Bangkok is Nendo's biggest ever project appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Nendo has completed its biggest-ever project: the exterior and interior renovation of a department store in Bangkok that founder Oki Sato believes represents a new way of shopping (+ slideshow).

Siam Discovery is operated by Thai retail and development company Siam Piwat, which invited Nendo to oversee the refurbishment of the interior and exterior of the 40,000-square-metre mall on Bangkok's Rama 1 thoroughfare.

The studio was tasked with implementing a radical vision for a new retail experience built around curated environments rather than the familiar branded concessions.

"The building is a new concept for retail," Sato told Dezeen. "It's a hybrid of a department store and a shopping mall, so there are tenants but there are also 13 self-curated retail points, which is what makes it different."

Instead of categorising products by brand, as is typical in traditional department stores, the different retail points present customers with a range of lifestyle experiences, including a digital lab, street lab, creative lab and play lab.

This "lifestyle laboratory" concept provided a theme which Nendo interpreted throughout the 13 spaces.

Beakers, flasks, test tubes, diagrams of molecular structures and other laboratory equipment recur throughout the interior as motifs, emphasising that the building is a space for creativity and experimentation.

"Retail is not about shopping any more, it's about creating an ever-changing experience for customers so it feels very dynamic and energetic," explained Siam Piwat CEO Chadatip Chutrakul.

"I decided to make the whole place a Lifestyle Laboratory, meaning anybody can come and do their own experiment – testing, creating and cultivating something for themselves."

The existing department store building featured a narrow frontage and deep plan punctuated by several circular atriums.

The designers connected these circulation spaces to create a canyon-like room that extends towards the rear and improves the customer flow.

One side of the atrium is lined with 202 frame-shaped boxes containing video monitors, digital signage and merchandise displays that can function as a directory of what's going on inside Siam Discovery.

The display wall extends over four storeys, drawing visitors towards the upper floors. The flow of shoppers is also encouraged by graduated finishes applied to floors and ceilings between the common areas and retail spaces.

Nendo's intervention to the building's exterior focused on enhancing its open and welcoming feel by creating as much space as possible around the glazed curtain walls.

A patterned facade treatment that references the stacked boxes inside the atrium was added to protect the interior from the harsh sunlight.

The retail points designed by Nendo include a space for electronics featuring displays that reference microscopes. Their lens-like forms provide surfaces for displaying merchandise illuminated by integrated lighting.

The prolific Japanese firm has designed everything from a transparent plastic rocking horse to a line of T-shirts featuring versions of the Hello Kitty character reinterpreted for a male audience, but founder Sato told Dezeen that the building is on a different scale to anything it has done before.

"This is definitely the biggest project we've ever done," said Sato. "It took us about two years and it was totally different [from previous projects], it was a big challenge for us."

"It was as if we've been cooking small dishes and suddenly we had to make a full dinner."

Nendo's previous retail work has included the womenswear department at iconic Milanese department store la Rinascente, and a women's fashion floor for the Seibu Shibuya store in Tokyo featuring a pastel palette and zig-zag patterns.

The post Nendo reimagines Bangkok department store as a new concept for retail appeared first on Dezeen.

Rotterdam firm MVRDV has unveiled its plans to overhaul La Part Dieu retail complex in Lyon, which feature an "evaporating" facade and a rooftop park.

MVRDV's transformation of the shopping centre is considered the centre piece in a major renovation taking place across the third arrondissement of the French city.

The firm's proposal includes a mixture of commercial, leisure and public space in the form of terraces and gardens – each of which will merge into the existing retail complex.

Through rearranging the programme and replacing the old car park, the firm will vastly increase the usable space of the building.

While the lower levels of the complex will house retail spaces, the upper levels are planned to accommodate restaurants, parks and a cinema and parking.

The street will be extended through the building via a walkway, and over it by stairways and escalators that take users up and over the complex.

A restructured main entrance to the east of the complex will provide access to visitors arriving from the Part-Dieu train station.

"By rearranging the programme, we create an urban platform that is somewhere between tranquil park and vibrant market square, recreating an atmosphere inspired by the Lyon river side," said MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas. "The restaurants, bars and cinema all spill out onto the terraces but can be accessed independently to the retail facilities through covered escalators that navigate around and over the building."

"The terraces turn the vast roofs of the shopping centre into open, green space in which the public can meet and relax; a quality that is currently missing in this area," he continued.

In hopes of preserving and improving La Part Dieu shopping centre's original identity, the architects are to re-use and update the existing facade.

Beige-coloured concrete panels will be replaced by a pattern of interwoven rectangles that disappear as they reach the building entrance.

"This evaporation of the facade, coupled with the redefinition of the spaces within and outside the building, looks to reconnect La Part Dieu centre with not only its immediate surroundings, but also to the wider area of Lyon," said Maas.

"The pattern of interwoven rectangles will continue over the new envelope eventually evaporating as they reach the building entrance; a physical and symbolic gesture to the new opening up of the shopping centre," he added.

MVRDV won the 2013 competition to overhaul the building, which was first constructed in 1975. The complex was previously extended by the adjacent 28-storey Tour Oxygène in 2010.

The Rotterdam studio recently revealed its design for a shopping centre in central Beijing, which is covered by a pearlescent facade.

MVRDV is also working on an elevated park that could become South Korea's answer to the High Line, an overhaul of a 1970s complex in Paris and a bowl-shaped art depot for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

The post MVRDV to transform La Part Dieu shopping centre in Lyon appeared first on Dezeen.

Rotterdam studio MVRDV has revealed its design for a shopping centre with a pearlescent facade, which is on target to complete this summer in central Beijing.

Designed for Chinese developer KWG Property, the Chongwenmen M-Cube will create a shopping destination and a cluster of new restaurants and bars for the neighbourhood between the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

MVRDV worked with manufacturers NBK and HDTC to develop a bespoke tile for the 33,000-square-metre building. The pearlescent finish will present a spectrum of colours, intended to give the building "a sense of craft and human character".

"The facade design balances between the desire of the client to create a striking building and the restrictive architectural conditions in that part of Beijing, demanding greys and beiges," said MVRDV co-founder Jacob van Rijs.

Some areas will be entirely covered in the tiles, while other areas will offer a pattern of solid and void. The aim is to offer an alternative to the aluminium panels that clad many nearby buildings.

"Depending on the viewpoint both parties can be satisfied, as the facade material appears differently when looking at different angles, it varies from subtle grey to all colours of the rainbow," added Van Rijs.

According to the firm, the project builds on research started in previous projects – in particular the tile-clad Gyre shopping centre and the Parkrand apartment complex with its varying material finishes.

The Chongwenmen M-Cube is designed to create as much commercial floor space on the plot as possible, so MVRDV's design approach was to start with the maximum volume allowed and then carve bits away.

This results in a faceted form, with facades orientated towards key views. This has the benefit of creating large spaces that can be used to display LED advertising.

Inside, the building will be organised around a large atrium. Shops will located on the lower levels, while restaurants and bars will be upstairs, with separate access provided by outdoor elevators.

MVRDV wasn't charged with developing the interior design, so this is being carried out by another firm.

There will also be a rooftop terraces and gardens, to provide "quiet refuge" from the busy city streets below.

MVRDV is also working on an elevated park that could become South Korea's answer to the High Line, an overhaul of a 1970s complex in Paris and a bowl-shaped art depot for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

The post MVRDV unveils pearlescent shopping centre nearing completion in Beijing appeared first on Dezeen.

French department store chain Galeries Lafayette has selected Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to design its new flagship shop on the Champs-Élysées.

Ingels' firm will renovate and transform an existing Art Deco building on the Parisian boulevard into a 9,000 square metre department store scheduled to open in 2018.

Galeries Lafayette said it wanted to turn the former bank building into "the department store of the 21st century".

Among the new additions will be an events space with a translucent floor that will occupy an area on one of the upper levels. A gathering space will offer views of the boulevard below, while the former bank vault will be turned into a moving image archive.

"We are inheriting a big, beautiful building that has been there for a century, so we are mostly moving around within it and playing with elements that have already been established," Ingels told industry news site Business of Fashion.

"The restoration of a concealed skylight will be treated in a modern way, not as a replication of the iconic Boulevard Haussmann cupola," he added. "We're taking that element and letting it bleed out across the store, so that the lighting behaves in a similar way as when the clouds move over Paris."

BIG won a competition for the job, beating three other architecture studios. It will be the firm's first major retail project.

"The talent, creativity and fundamentally innovative approach of BIG will allow us to build together the department store of the 21st century, totally designed to meet the aspirations of our clients," said Galeries Lafayette CEO Nicolas Houzé.

BIG's current projects include the nearly completed residential project Via 57 on West 57th Street in Manhattan and Google's glass-roofed future headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Galeries Lafayette, which was founded in 1912, currently has 62 stores. Its existing flagship is on Paris' Boulevard Hausmann.

The site of the new Galeries Lafayette flagship store was acquired by the company's co-founder Théophile Bader in the 1920s, but was sold in 1929. The current bank building was completed in 1932 and was most recently occupied by a Virgin Megastore.

The new store design by BIG will create the biggest shop on the Champs-Élysées, which connects the tourist hot spots of the Tuileries gardens and the Arc de Triomphe. Up to 300,000 people are thought to walk along the avenue each day, and it is set to be closed to traffic for one day each month under plans by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The boulevard has some of the highest rents in the French capital, and a dedicated association of shop owners who lobby for improvements, public projects, events and extended opening hours.

It has traditionally been associated with the height of Parisian style and entertainment. But over the past few decades its character has changed significantly with rents driving out independent businesses, making way for the arrival of international chain stores.

In 2007, the Paris city government attempted to stop the "banalisation" of the Champs-Élysées by blocking Swedish company H&M from opening its own megastore on the avenue. The company managed to open a store at a different address on the boulevard two years later.

2016 is already proving to be a busy year for Bjarke Ingels. His firm has been chosen to design this year's Serpentine Pavilion, and also recently unveiled it designs for a police station in the Bronx, and a 65-storey glass tower in New York City.

The post BIG to design Galeries Lafayette flagship on Paris' Champs-Élysées appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen promotion: entries are now open for architects and students to submit projects for the International Shopping Plaza design competition, chaired by architects Daniel Libeskind and Iñaki Abalos (+ slideshow).

Wanda Commercial Planning and Research Institute (WCPRI) and China Building Centre (CBC) are running parallel competitions – one for students and one for professionals – for design concepts that reinvent the shopping centre as a 21st-century public plaza.

The competition is open to both architecture students and professional architects. The organisers recommended that proposals are submitted by groups, formed of members from a variety related fields.

"My suggestion is that teams could be formed, which, beyond architects and planners, include philosophers, artists and economists – in order to address the core value of the space: total immersive experience, available to all," said jury chairman, architect Daniel Libeskind.

Submissions should propose a new shopping mall typology that references plazas of the past.

"One of the ways to delve into this problem is to look into the history of public spaces," said Libeskind. "Walter Benjamin has described in his Arcades Project the technological, commercial, societal and artistic dimensions of the development of the 19th-century capital: Paris."

"The great traditions of public space, the market, desire and fulfilment are connected to our present – which creates a future that is both unexpected and compelling," the architect said.

Libeskind, founder and principal architect at Studio Libeskind, will chair the jury of the professional group.

The jury of the student competition will be chaired by Iñaki Abalos, director of international architecture office Ábalos and Sentkiewicz.

Titled Commerce Changes Cities, the students' brief suggests that "central, public spaces should orient, attract and provide unprecedented flexibility for the future needs of the entire complex".

Applicants should explore synergies with other activities such as swimming and dining.

Professionals will submit concepts for the Nexus of Experience and Interaction brief, which also asks for a fusion of shopping with leisure, entertainment and public events.

In both categories, prizes will be awarded to first, second and third place, as well as a fourth for honourable mention. Winners will be chosen by a jury that includes leading architects, deans and directors from top architecture schools.

First prize for the professional group is $15,000 (approximately £10,500) and participation in the follow-up project design.

The student group winner will received $8,300 (approximately £5,800), as well as an internship at a prestigious architectural firm as part of the Learning Design with Master Architects Programme.

All the award-winning projects will be exhibited in a subsequent tour and published by UED.

The competition is sponsored by the Architecture and Culture Society of China and Wanda Commercial Planning & Research Institute.

Wanda Commercial Planning and Research Institute is responsible for conceptual masterplanning; building design of self-holding commercial, cultural and tourism projects; research and development; as well as design control for all the Wanda Group's real-estate projects.

Wanda has previously designed a shopping centre with over 42,000 shiny silver balls attached to its facade in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The deadline for registration and submissions is 10 March 2016, and the winners will be announced in April 2016.

For more details about the competitions, visit the UED website.

Read on for more information from the organisers:

International Shopping Plaza Concept Competition

The 21st Century City is poised for a total transformation of the "shopping mall", and consequently of the entire idea of public interaction, desire and commerce.

Such a radical transformation requires correlatively the transformation of physical space, represented by the so called "shopping mall". I have put the words "shopping mall" in quotes because we have already seen the blurring and erasure of old categories which separated shopping from leisure, entertainment, and public festivities. This separation is a consequence, not only of technology, but of human perception which is opening up new frontiers. New forms of anticipation and fulfilment arrive at the fore.

The aim of this competition is to produce a holistic, physical space that contains all of the possibilities for shopping, entertainment, leisure and being – in any form that can communicate practical, pragmatic and economically achievable solutions. These solutions must be implemented and built in a sustainable, innovative spirit.

So what could one envision for the shopping mall or public plaza of the 21st century? Is the new mall a microcosm of the human mind, whose unlimited complexity combined with individual choice resonate in harmony with others? Can such a space be more than an illusionistic stage on which shops offer their wares and food and beverage is available as it is on the streets? Can such a space promote greater levels of self- fulfilment and communal identity by providing both intimacy and grandeur; both an individual experience and an atmosphere which elevates the individual towards imagination, participation and creativity.

Just like the 21st Century city, the modern plaza is centred on the passion for creative transformation and intense metamorphosis. This space — no longer bound by the over simplified functionalist notions of connectivity — can create a field of experience which is multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary. It is in this way, the great traditions of public space, the market, desire and fulfilment are connected to our present – which creates a future that is both unexpected and compelling.

Beyond designing spaces, shop-front, natural and artificial light... One must bring a powerful new notion of nature, both animate and inanimate, which will infuse the shopping plaza with a fantastic sense of joy, discovery and wonder. One of the ways to delve into this problem is to look into the history of public spaces. Walter Benjamin has described in his Arcades Project the technological, commercial, societal and artistic dimensions of the development of the 19th-century capital: Paris.

Perhaps the 21st century capital needs to discover its own heritage. This heritage is not only to be found in existing typologies and obvious requirements and needs. To give accessibility to everyone from the lonely individual, to families, young people, children, the elderly, tourists and visitors, one needs to develop an integrated program, which includes all of the arts.

While virtual shopping has counted its own successes recently, there is a need to re-affirm the sense of community engagement with people, face to face. It is the core of the longevity of all spaces that are meaningful. One might use virtual technologies but for a different purpose: to show the magic of the material world and the aura of being able to access things with all of the senses. The participants in this competition are therefore asked to find new forms of engagement and enjoyment – for a new light, a new stage, and a new focus on the vividness of everyday life, imbued with concrete success.

My suggestion is that teams could be formed, which, beyond architects and planners, include philosophers, artists and economists – in order to address the core value of the space: total immersive experience, available to all. The form of response in terms of drawings, models, films, books, installations, choreographies... is completely open to all participants. This is a quest for originality and artistic creativity, based on scientific and poetic criteria.

I wish the participants fun, intellectually challenging discourse, and a dialogue that includes all people equally.

Daniel Libeskind

Professional Group

Jury chairman: Daniel Libeskind
Jury members: Benedetta Tagliabue, David Malott, Lai Jianyan, Zhu Xiaodi and Anthony LaMolinara
Theme: Nexus of experience and interaction

The 21st Century City is poised for a total transformation of the "shopping mall", and consequently of the entire idea of public interaction, desire and commerce. Such a radical transformation requires correlatively the transformation of physical space, represented by the so called "shopping mall".

I have put the words "shopping mall" in quotes because we have already seen the blurring and erasure of old categories which separated shopping from leisure, entertainment, and public festivities. This separation is a consequence, not only of technology, but of human perception which is opening up new frontiers. New forms of anticipation and fulfilment arrive at the fore.

The aim of this competition is to produce a holistic, physical space that contains all of the possibilities for shopping, entertainment, leisure and being-- in any form that can communicate practical, pragmatic and economically achievable solutions. these solutions must be implemented and built in a sustainable, innovative spirit.

Student Group

Jury chairman: Iñaki Abalos
Jury members: René-Henri Arnaud, Will Hosikian, Li Zhenyu and Peng Lixiao
Theme: Commerce changes cities

The designs submitted for the International Shopping Mall Competition should display that the shopping plaza is a stage – a veritable vitrine - for public performance. The purpose of the competition is to go beyond it, to find innovative ideas able to confront the new ways of shopping and provide spaces where all can recognise themselves and socialise freely. A site, representing its regional culture, can be chosen freely by the participants. Explain briefly in all cases the reason and the market you will be confronted with.

Hosting organisations: Architecture and Culture Society of China and Wanda Commercial Planning & research Institute
Co-hosting organisations: China Building Centre College of architecture and Urban Planning Tongji University and Tongji architectural Design (group) Co Ltd.

Registration deadline: 10 March 2016
Submission deadline: 10 March 2016
Jury convenes: March 2016
Results announced: April 2016

www.mallconcept.uedmagazine.net

The post Call for entries to International Shopping Plaza Concept Competition appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Hiroyuki Ogawa Architects has created a smoking room that is designed to never be smoky inside a shopping centre on the outskirts of Tokyo (+ slideshow).

Rather than banishing smokers outside the building, the Grand Tree Musashikosugi shopping centre asked Hiroyuki Ogawa's firm to design a dedicated room where shoppers can stop off for a cigarette.

A curved wooden screen was added to help channel smoke up to an extractor overhead, with fans positioned behind this screen to help draw the smoke upwards.

Smokers are encouraged to hold their cigarettes over an illuminated ledge at the base of this screen, allowing smoke to be drawn directly out of the room.

"In order to have clean air in the smoking room we took two specific measures," said the design team, comprising Ogawa and architect Erika Okamoto.

"Firstly, by adding the curved wall we induce the smoke to the exhaust outlet on the ceiling," they explained. "Secondly, by setting up a fan between the ashtray and the exhaust outlet, the second-hand smoke and smoke from people’s mouths are quickly drawn away."

"With those measures, the smoke is immediately cleared from the user's breathing area," they said.

A glass frontage allows passersby to see into the space and creates a sealed environment when the door is closed, to prevent smoke from spreading through the shopping centre.

To recreate the appearance of a larger, smokier room, a mirrored wall at one end of the space is printed with a half-tone pattern of small white dots.

"By putting dots on the end wall, the reflected space looks foggy and thus users think the air flows to the deeper inside," said the designers.

Aside from the curved wooden screen and the dotty mirrored surface, the walls and floor of the 12-square-metre space are lined with cream tiles. Two additional freestanding ashtrays were also added in the middle of the room.

Photography is by Kaku Ohtaki.

The post Smoking room designed by Hiroyuki Ogawa to offer clean air instead of fumes appeared first on Dezeen.

News: MVRDV has been granted planning approval to overhaul a 1970s complex in Paris, which includes adding a new facade of colourful stacked boxes to an existing shopping centre.

The Rotterdam-based studio plans to "reintroduce the lost human scale" and give a new identity to the Vandamme Nord complex, part of the Ilôt Vandamme block designed by Pierre Dufau – the French architect best known for the Tour Europlaza tower in the city's La Défense district and for his work on the reconstruction of Amiens after the Second World War.

Bounded by Rue Mouchotte, Avenue du Maine and the rail tracks of Gare Montparnasse, the triangular Ilôt Vandamme was of the largest urban design projects in Paris at the time. Most of the site is taken up by a horizontal slab block, but the 30-storey Pullman Hotel rises up on one side.

MVRDV plans to renovate the shopping centre, offices, hotel, library and underground car park – which it describes as "an introverted and self-contained block" that "failed to adapt to the changing needs of an urban society". The firm also plans to add housing, a kindergarten and a conference centre, and improve pedestrian connections across the site.

"This project is a fantastic chance to insert a little bit of human scale into a megalomaniacal 1970s development in the very heart of Paris," explained Winy Maas, one of the three founders of MVRDV. "We will bring order to the complex building, making it accessible from all sides and intensifying its use through a higher density of programs."

The existing shopping centre facade will be replaced with an assortment of glazed boxes, varying in shape, size, colour and material. MVRDV believes this will help to break down the massing of the building.

Fitting in with the existing structural frame, these boxes will present all of the building's different uses, but are also designed to be flexible to suit a changing programme.

"On its facade the building will display all of the activities that are going on inside," said Maas. "For this we have developed a catalogue of facade-elements that are exchangeable, so that the entire ensemble can respond flexibly to changes in use over the coming years."

The retail offering will also be extended, with additional entrances created on Avenue du Maine to the east and Rue Mouchotte to the west.

Existing offices will be relocated into a six-storey block featuring planted roof terraces, while the Bibliothèque Vandamme library will be relocated from the basement to the top of the building's plinth.

MVRDV will also create 62 social housing units and a 500-square-metre kindergarten.

Approximately 150 scooter parking spaces will be added within the six-storey underground car park.

Project credits:

Client: Unibail-Rodamco
Architect: MVRDV
Local architect SRA
Engineers SCYNA4
Installation consultant LAFI + INEXC
Cost consultant Vanguard
Facade engineers RFR
Acoustic consultant LASA
Fire safety consultant: BATISS

The post MVRDV wins approval for Vandamme Nord shopping centre facelift in Paris appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto aimed to create "crystallised showers of sunlight" with the blue glass fins that front his shopping centre in the Miami Design District (+ interview + slideshow).

Sou Fujimoto's design for the Palm Court retail centre was influenced by Miami's tropical and unpredictable weather, which he experienced during his first visit.

"I was impressed by the weather – really strong sunshine – and during the stay I had the experience of a really heavy shower suddenly coming in and then suddenly getting sunny again," Fujimoto told Dezeen during an interview at the complex in December.

Split over two levels, the building accommodates a row of shops that all face onto a plaza. Long thin sections of blue glass are attached vertically to the facade around these store fronts – intended to look like rain.

The fins also extend out from the roof and down almost 13 metres to the ground, creating a curtain that partially encloses corridors in front of the boutiques on both floors – which Fujimoto likens to "small streets".

The louvres let sunlight into the spaces, while forming areas of dappled shade and allowing air to flow through.

"My inspiration was the strong sunshine and the rainfall showers, and to try to integrate them together to create these kind of crystallised showers of sunlight," said Fujimoto. "This is the first for me to use glass not as a window, but more like a half-object to create the architectural space and the first time for me to use colour as well."

The use of blue is a departure from the Tokyo-based architect's usual choice of white, which he used for the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London.

"The colour is from my impression of Miami – the blue sky and the rainfall," Fujimoto said. "If you have the blue colours or blue shadows then you might feel a bit cooler."

The slender fins are orientated so they don't obscure the views of the brand's shopfronts when seen face on.

"From the front you can almost see through this surface," said the architect. "Of course, from other directions – if you walk down the corridor – you will feel like you are surrounded."

Structural columns and beams that support the canopy are sandwiched by the glass sections. Steel tension wires brace the components against strong winds.

In the plaza, a version of Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome is installed over the access to the car park, so that shoppers ascending up from their vehicles arrive in the bubble-shaped structure.

Opposite the dome, a giant bust of Modernist architect Le Corbusier rises from the paving.

The Miami Design District was initiated by local property developer Craig Robins, who has transformed an area between N Miami Avenue and NE 2nd Avenue into a hub for design boutiques and luxury fashion brands.

Loosely bound by NE 43rd and NE 38th streets, the district also includes an events space and a retail building by American architects Aranda/Lasch – both nearing completion.

Photography is by Robin Hill unless specified otherwise.

Read an edited version of our interview with Sou Fujimoto below:

Dan Howarth: How did the Palm Court project come about?

Sou Fujimoto: This is a commercial building facing onto Palm Court, and it started three or four years ago. I came here to meet with Craig Robins and his office Dacra contacted me to ask about the possibilities to design something here.

From the very beginning he had the idea about Palm Court and he asked me to design this building at the end of the central axis. It is for the smaller but really prestigious high brands, jewellery, watches. One building for a group of different brands. The inspiration in a sense was very straightforward. It was the first time for me to be [in Miami] and I was impressed by the weather – really strong sunshine – and during the stay I had the experience of a really heavy shower suddenly coming in and then suddenly getting sunny again. So it was kind of a weather thing that was really impressive.

The first idea is to have a canopy against the strong sunshine and the rainfall but at the same time to create half-public, corridor-like areas. Not just shops facing to the plaza, but more like a space in front – a cloister-like space. My inspiration was the strong sunshine and the rainfall showers, and to try to integrate them together to create these kind of crystallised showers of sunlight.

Dan Howarth: Is that why you chose to use glass?

Sou Fujimoto: Yes, and to keep the quality of buildings as equal as the brands. Of course we thought about aluminium or stainless-steel plates, but the glass has transparency and it has its own heaviness, and the materiality that could make the buildings more equal to the brands. So to keep the balance.

This is the first for me to use glass not as a window, but more like a half-object to create the architectural space and the first time for me to use colour as well.

Dan Howarth: How did you choose the colour?

Sou Fujimoto: The colour is from my impression of Miami – the blue sky and the rainfall. So then we started to try the blue colour, it's really straightforward! And, of course the climate – like today it's getting hot – but if you have the blue colours or blue shadows here then you might feel a bit cooler.

Dan Howarth: A lot of your architecture is very white. Do you think the use of colour creates a different type of atmosphere for the building?

Sou Fujimoto: Yeah, it was a big challenge for me to not just use white every time. It depends on the situation. I like to try different colours and different materials, because we should have such diversities.

Dan Howarth: How does the structural system work? How does it all fit together?

Sou Fujimoto: The basic structure is very simple. You can see between the glass that there are thin columns and beams to support the canopies. And the structures of the main building are really like the usual, economical, shop-sized spaces. The canopy areas make it very light. And we have columns, but every column sandwiched by the glass with a small gap – to make it half-invisible. So, of course, we used laminated glass but combined via these cables not to make like this. There were hurricane regulations, so we had to make it more stable – connected by cables to keep its lightness.

Dan Howarth: Behind this facade, how are the units arranged?

Sou Fujimoto: It's just empty space that [the occupants] can do as they like with, the same as the front of the shop. We could only make the frames of the shops. That was the very basic condition from the very beginning. We cannot control the shop front of each different brand.

Dan Howarth: How did you deal with designing a shopping centre design that has to fit with all of the different brand facades?

Sou Fujimoto: Each shop has its different front, so I don't want to disturb or block their shop front. That is why we use these thin glass veins, so from the front you can almost see through this surface. Of course, from other directions – if you walk down the corridor – you will feel like you are surrounded. You are in the corridor, so you are more part of this shop and more integrated into the shopping environment.

Dan Howarth: What do you think is the most interesting thing about designing a shopping centre?

Sou Fujimoto: It's like a small city. And, of course, this is only one part of the shopping area. But still it has a corridor, so it is more like not only designing the corridor but also the small street itself. And the shopping area here is like a small town or village. For me, that's very exciting to see how architecture can be integrated with a landscape or urban strategies.

Dan Howarth: The mall is quite a standard architectural typology in America. Have you purposefully tried to move away from this?

Sou Fujimoto: This is the first time for me to do this kind of shopping building. Of course a shopping centre has its own logic. I don't know if it's possible to change drastically the typology or the archetype of a shopping centre in a different way. But I just feel the potential because it has the combination of the city aspects, the architecture aspects and the landscape aspects together.

The post Sou Fujimoto's Palm Court retail complex completes in Miami appeared first on Dezeen.

News: an appeals court has blocked the SANAA-designed renovation of iconic former department store La Samaritaine in Paris, which includes a wavy glass facade that critics have compared to a shower curtain.

The court ruling effectively revokes part of the planning permission for the £368 million redevelopment planned by Japanese architect duo SANAA, causing building work to halt for the second time in a year.

Commissioned by LVMH, the parent company of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Dior, the redevelopment involves a complete overhaul of the 19th-century department store that closed down in 2005 after nearly 40 years of decline, creating an all-new shopping centre.

SANAA architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa proposed demolishing several structures at the rear of the site and replacing the building's historic facades with a new transparent skin, which they described as "a set of etched glass waves".

Campaigners argued that the new structure wouldn't fit in with the area's 18th- and 19th-century Haussmann style and claimed the new facade would look like a shower curtain.

An earlier judge ruling in May 2014 briefly stopped work on the project, but it resumed later in the year. Two of three buildings on Rue de Rivoli were razed in this period, but the latest court decision has once again stopped construction.

The appeal is led by heritage groups the Society for the Protection of Landscapes and Aesthetics and SOS Paris, who have described the ruling as "wise and reasoned".

"Beyond the emblematic case of La Samaritaine, the issue is of the place of contemporary architecture in historic centres," said the two organisations in a statement. "The Parisians must now claim this victory as the result of a democratic struggle led by the associations."

LVMH – which is owned by France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault – told Reuters it would contest the decision at France's supreme administrative court. The Paris city council has also offered to support the cause.

SANAA first revealed its proposal for the Paris site in 2011. It includes 26,000 square metres of retail space spread over three floors, as well as social housing, a nursery, offices and a hotel.

It was originally expected to open in 2013 – a year ahead of the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton, also commissioned by LVMH – but is now unlikely to be completed before 2016.

The post French court revokes planning permission for SANAA's La Samaritaine revival appeared first on Dezeen.

AIM Architecture has designed a lobby featuring a light tunnel and a white "gallery-style" shopping centre for a retail and office complex in Shanghai (+ slideshow).

AIM Architecture was asked to design the two spaces for Fuxing Plaza by the site developer, the commercial real estate company Soho China Limited. The company have collaborated with architect Zaha Hadid on a number of previous projects including the recently completed Sky Soho, a retail and office complex near Shanghai's city airport.

"Designing a shopping mall is a strange thing; it is considered a commercial only affair," said AIM Architects. "It implies: not culturally relevant. That is odd, shopping malls seem to be among the highlights of our culture, like it or not."

In response, the architects designed S-Mall, a "neutral and gallery style" shopping centre that houses 80 retail units for mostly independent stores, restaurants and bars.

"Our aim is: 'Shopping S-Mall' instead of 'Shopping Mall'," said AIM Architects.

The shop fronts are presented at varying levels, in contrast to the continuous frontages typically used in shopping centre design. Individual retailers will be encouraged to customise their window areas.

"We embraced Soho's admirable belief in the future, to present the project as a seductive bright white environment that encourages creativity and optimism and give all the protagonism to the units, [the] same as in an art gallery where art hanging on the walls or standing on podium are the ones that organise and fill the pure and neutral white space," said the architects.

Square down-lights reflect off the highly polished marble flooring to produce a dappled effect. The walls are clad in contrasting white matt painted plasterboard.

"The spot lighting is chosen to create a spontaneous and lightly mystifying environment where things can be personal or individual, rather than collective and controlled," said the architects.

Escalators and staircases that connect the two levels rise through a series of ellipses in the ceiling of the lower floor.

"We dramatised the escalators by cladding them in white and chrome, white for the exteriors presenting them as odd scaled sculptures of movement, while we clad the interiors in chrome to reflect the multifold of people using them," said the architects.

White pillars support a curved staircase also lined with mirrored panels. According to the architects the spiral steps acts "almost as a slide, to celebrate your movement in space."

In the lobby, a brightly lit corridor runs through the centre of the 1,200-square-metre space. The corridor provides access to the lifts for the building, and connects two entrance points at either end of the lobby concourse.

The corridor walls are lined with white back-printed glass and inset with a grid network of LED lighting. The linear lights reflect off the highly polished glass surface to give an illusion of an infinite network – a feature shared with the Glass Office AIM Architects designed for the complex last year.

"The bright white 'back to the future' space is the lift lobby," AIM Architecture co-founder Vincent De Graaf told Dezeen. "Its stark contrast to the darkish grey of the rest of the lobby directs the people to the lifts. So we inverted the natural condition of light near the facade dark in the core to organise the space."

The main body of the lobby is clad in sections of mottled grey aluminium foam board. Clusters of white metal spot-lights sit in the groves of the panelling.

"Its aesthetic beautifully balances the smooth bright white in the lift lobby. The striking contrast with the bright white and the lively dark grey tints result in a stunning contemporary aesthetic," said the architects in a statement.

On either side of the white reception desk, columns lined with sections of aluminium foam board create pockets of seating along the glass façade of the building.

"The aluminium boards absorb sound very well, as a result of the open pore characteristics of the material," said De Graaf.

"It creates an acoustic atmosphere that is intimate, softened. Making this a pleasant space for a talk or a coffee, rather than a noisy distracting place."

Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.

Project credits:

Architect: AIM Architecture
Design Team: Vincent de Graaf, Wendy Saunders, German Roig, Zhuoran Chen, Jiao Yan
Consultants/engineers: ECADI as MEP consultant and HAIZHI as LDI

The post AIM Architecture designs "back to the future" interiors for Shanghai shopping centre appeared first on Dezeen.

The folded facade of this retail complex in Fuzhou, China, by architecture firm Spark, is made from colour-changing aluminium panels and integrates giant advertising screens (+ slideshow).

Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza by Spark is situated in the city's Jinan District. Its multi-sided shape is designed to facilitate a continuous flow of pedestrian traffic around the seven storeys of retail space, and the street and surrounding plaza outside.

A meandering facade creates a variety of public spaces around the base of the building to draw visitors towards entrances set into the folds.

The faceted exterior is constructed using aluminium panels with a surface treatment that changes colour when viewed from different angles, resulting in a constantly shifting appearance.

Illuminated signage, advertisements and LED displays are integrated into sections of the building's skin and lighting behind the aluminium panels shines through perforations to create the effect of a night sky after dark.

Two separate circulation routes have been incorporated into the design to enable separate access to the retail spaces at the building's core, and the cinema and restaurant facilities open 24 hours a day on the upper floors.

The project is an important step for Spark to bring our 24-hour vertical street concept to reality," said the firm's director Jan Felix Clostermann. "The opening day has shown that it will make a big impact to this street culture city."

At night, visitors are able to ascend to the rooftop using a circulation route integrated into the building's northern facade. Here, the angular shell has been removed to reveal a series of terraces lined with shops and eateries that rise above the pedestrianised street.

Inside the shopping centre, a large atrium containing the escalators and walkways follows a kinked route through the centre of the building.

The atrium features a roof of triangular glass panels, which fills the space with natural light that reflects off the glossy white and black reconstituted stone flooring.

A faceted object suspended above the entrance displays adverts on huge LED screens, while linear LED chandeliers that evoke the building's angular surfaces hang above the public areas.

Bright acrylic lining the escalators introduces a hint of colour, while translucent coloured panels set into the floors of bridges crossing the atrium provide glimpses of the levels below.

Spark previously transformed a pair of shophouses in Bangkok into a youth centre, adding a stairwell that resembles a block of Swiss cheese.

Photography is by Shu He.

Here's some more information from the architects:

Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza – Fuzhou, China

Project Summary

Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza's central location at WuSi Bei Dajie, Jinan District makes it Fuzhou's most successful retail mall. Its design enhanced Thaihot's brand as a forward thinking innovative retail developer. SPARK's design entwines the plaza, the street and the mall interior into a continuous circulation route that transforms the building into a living entity full of movement and energy. 12-hour daytime retail activities are concentrated in a 7-level shopping mall from which routes to the rooftop are carved out. Here various activities such as full service dining and cinema effectively create 24-hour traffic-free streets and squares attracting visitors not only to shop but also enjoy as a new social and entertainment destination.

Design Description

It is recorded history that after visiting Fuzhou, Marco Polo described the city as "an important centre of commerce in precious stones." Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza is the modern day 'precious stone', a gem, located in the heart of Fuzhou soon to be discovered by many alike.

The Building

The many facets of the building exist to serve different functions in plan and the building facade. Easing the edges of the building in plan increases sightlines into the pedestrian street, which helps draws people in. Unlike some straight streets that shoot pedestrians quickly through, an undulating tenant facade facilitates the natural ebb and flow of pedestrian traffic, creating a dynamic shopping experience.

Colour shifting aluminium panels on the facade creates an exterior appearance that is constantly changing. While most panels are the building skin, select facets serve key visual functions such as illuminated signage boxes, advertisements, and three LED screens. At night, perforations in the aluminium panels allow light to pass through to create a starry night effect.

The Circulation

The typical mall typology locates functions such as cinemas & KTV at upper levels of malls. These functions operate into the early hours of the morning long past the closing time of other retail facilities necessitating the public to navigate a difficult journey down out of darkened non air conditioned space.

To mitigate this dilemma, Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza has two complementary circulation routes, a 12 hour day route and a 24 hour route. Retail programs that operate in the day are consolidated into a shopping mall podium typology (12hour). Circulation routes and terraces are carved out of the podium facilitating access to the roof top where there are a variety of activities such as miniature golf and full service dining can be found(24 hour).

When the normal shopping functions have closed, customers are provided with an alternate route lined with shops and terraces snaking along the podium façade (24 hour). This route is further animated by its adjacency to the pedestrian street. The entire north facade becomes a living entity full of movement and energy.

"The project is an important step for SPARK to bring our 24 hour vertical street concept to reality. The opening day has shown that it will make a big impact to this street culture city" says Jan Clostermann, Director of SPARK.

The Interior Space

On a rare occasion, chipping away at a stone will lead to the discovery of a cavernous core lined with mineral deposits exploding with radiant colour and light. The experience of entering Spark's proposed mall in Fuzhou is equally dazzling as a voluminous atrium filled with vibrant colour and light greets the visitor.

As an extension of the faceted façade a crystalline LED advertisement gem hovers over the atrium concierge as the visual focal point upon entering the mall. The pristine white interior atrium is accentuated by colour highlights on the escalators which are sculpturally composed in the middle of the atrium. Linear LED light chandeliers sit over the interior events plaza. Back lit floor peepholes strew across the atrium bridges like scattered jewels as a playful addition to the space, attracting curious onlookers.

Project data

Total GFA (sqm): 300,000sqm
Above ground GFA: 212,600sqm
Basement GFA: 87.400sqm
Commercial: 100,890sqm
SOHO: 199,110sqm

Credits

Architecture and Interior Design: Spark
Project Director: Jan Felix Clostermann
Team: Mingyin Tan, Christian Taeubert, Jian Yun Wu, Ben de Lange, Emer Loraine, Wang Haiyan Leo Micolta, Cary Cheng
Client: Thaihot Group

The key materials are: black and white reconstituted stone, stretch ceiling light box, tinted laminated glass, rainbow tinted acrylic, composite aluminium panels and Glass Reinforced Gypsum board.

The post Spark incorporates giant screens into faceted shopping centre facade appeared first on Dezeen.

News: German studio J Mayer H has won a competition to design a shopping centre near Berlin's Alexanderplatz where shoppers will be able to indulge in skydiving or surfing.

Located between Alexanderstrasse and Voltairestrasse, the new Volt Berlin concept store will be targeted towards "adventurous visitors" and will accommodate a department store, a hotel and restaurants, as well as a variety of "experiential offerings".

J Mayer H's design is for a modular structure where different activities are contained within clusters of boxes.

"The experience cluster is a fusion concept combining a multi-brand store, various experiential offerings, events, and a hotel, and is directed towards adventurous visitors with a focus on a smart urban lifestyle," said the studio in a statement.

A horizontal slice of glazing will cut across the centre of the building, revealing the extreme sports taking place within.

"This intermediate space, located at the level of the train viaduct, will host the centre's most important attractions: indoor-skydiving and a surf wave," said the studio.

The projected total floor area of the building is just under 30,000 square metres.

Construction is expected to start next year.

The post J Mayer H designs Berlin shopping centre offering indoor skydiving and surfing appeared first on Dezeen.