Shopping and the city

The Shopping Mall built in Piotrkòw Trybunalski is the largest in the Lods region, extending over two floors with an area of more than 50 thousand square metres and housing a multiplex cinema and 110 shops.
The structure resembles that of many other large-scale retail spaces, but in developing this concept the Krakow-based practices MOFO Architekci and WBWK Architekci started out from the observation of a new trend dictated by the need to refocus on the consumer, to restore empathy between consumers and the large consumer spaces that have lost their role of drivers of innovation and modernity.
The large-scale retail sector is undergoing a major change in direction. While large retailers are offering discounts and promotions, consumers are investing their resources in players that offer service and quality.
One of the aims of the project was therefore to define a new concept of beauty and luxury. Even an outlet, a supermarket or a discount store can offer consumers a luxury experience, not so much in terms of selection as of service, attention to customers, comfort and architectural design.
Purchasers seek out spaces that deliver visual appeal with intelligence, that interpret their unexpressed desires, that distinguish themselves from conventional store spaces.
The distinctive qualities of the new shopping spaces are those of heterogeneity in terms of management, size and product category.
The aim is to offer customers an experience of exploration and discovery through a multiplicity of cues originating both from the variety of displayed products and from the architecture of the space.
The capacity for reception and comfort are the cornerstones of the strategy for the new spaces. The goal is to increase the number of visitors and the amount of time they spend in the store. The longer they stay, the greater the probability that they will make a purchase. At the same time, the variety of offerings allows for differentiation between target clientele. The same place that during the day offers household items, perfumes and fashion might be transformed in the evening into a venue for an aperitif or a bookshop with tearoom.
The aim is always to construct a complete world of expectations and needs around a specific theme capable of drawing together the multiplicity of objects and services offered in the same space.
The new social and economic paradigms that each day take shape in these meeting places pose a significant design challenge: to bring innovation and design closer to the most human and emotional aspects, to imbue commercial spaces that are no longer devoted solely to consumption with an idea of home and city that will persist in the experience of visitors.
Among the new criteria for the design of commercial spaces, it has therefore become essential to avoid uniformity, to focus on the relationship with the urban context and on the diversity of routes and environments.
In Focus Mall designed by MOFO Architekci and WBWK Architekci, the contemporary compositional approach is governed by a sophisticated study of colour and a creative use of materials.
The porcelain floor tiles from Casalgrande Padana (Pietre Native collection) are installed according to a multiplicity of patterns that lend identity to the different areas, guiding visitors in their choice of route to the galleries in the Mall and the escalators. The different cadences of the field tiles define the transit and standing areas according to a hierarchy of relationships designed to meet visitors’ expectations.