New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 35/02C | Page 84

Project
Shimao Festival City
Location:
Shanghai, China
Architect:
Kokaistudios
FACE OF CHANGE
A mega mall, fallen from grace due to changing retail trends, is reworked with fresh circulation
and entrances – the result is a dramatically reinvigorated thriving retail and dining hub
These pages:Large, central
and yet increasingly out of step
with modern lifestyle retailing,
the Shimao Festival City mall
in Shanghai has now been
transformed by Kokaistudios. The
re-invented venue has different-
look entrances catering to
different users and a high-profile
external escalator system which
has the added advantage of also
turning the mall into a tourist
attraction.
The greenest building is one already built – a
truism often touted in regard to renovation projects.
And greenest also often means ‘most economical’
– particularly when considering a mega mall with
falling attendance and yet great forward potential.
After success in other China mall projects, archi-
tectural company Kokaistudios has now brought
its expertise in shopping mall renovation to China’s
increasingly lifestyle-driven retail scene.
Kokaistudios principal architect Andrea Destefanis
says the firm has dramatically – even theatrically –
reinvented Shimao Festival City in Shanghai.
“This project demonstrates how by expanding
a dated mall’s functionality and reconsidering its
circulation, such a sizeable, valuable structure can
be reabsorbed by the city as a useful, even thriving
public space for retail, dining and entertainment.”
Built in 2006, Shimao Festival City is a modern
monument of Shanghai. Comprising retail,
hotel and office space, it is located at the top of
Shanghai’s renowned East Nanjing Road shopping
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street, with views across nearby People’s Square.
But despite its prime location, the mall had become
overlooked by residents in favour of venues more
clearly aligned with a contemporary city lifestyle.
“Kokaistudios was tasked with upgrading the
pre-existing retail component of Shimao Festival
City,” says Destefanis. “By reconfiguring circulation
inside and outside the facility, identifying clear
pathways according to visitor type, and creating
openness and space, the reworked mall has helped
reinvigorate a prime corner of Shanghai real estate.
“In addition, this comprehensive makeover has
placed the mall firmly on the radar of both residents
and tourists – reconnecting it to the city.”
Kokaistudios’ design concept is a theatre, and
the renovation centres on the pedestrian flow of
three distinct identified user groups – tourists,
audience (think local residents) and actors (or office
workers), with areas of the mall imagined as the
foyer, auditorium, and backstage of a theatre.
“Starting from outside, an external ‘red carpet’