Finiper and Design International have unveiled Il Centro, the largest shopping centre in Italy. The former site of Alfa Romeo, the site was purchased in the 90s by Italian hypermarket giant and mall developer Finiper. This site has set the scene for what has become, with over 92,000m² GLA, the largest shopping centre in Italy, designed by architectural firm Design International.
Located on the north-west corner of Milan, between Malpensa airport, Lake Maggiore, Lake Como and Switzerland, Il Centro Shopping Centre is estimated to attract over 15 million visitors in the first year of operations.
In June 2014 Marco Brunelli, the patron and founder of Finiper, appointed Davide Padoa, principal architect and CEO of Design International, to review both the architectural and the commercial positioning of the development. Design International formulated an indoor-outdoor city street concept where single shops were treated like stand-alone buildings (or 'Palazzos') within the shopping centre main building, and integrated in its design tree-lined internal and external streets, squares, grand staircases, children and recreational areas, balconies, a multitude of restaurants and cafes and a diversity of site-lines where shops and signages are the focal point.
Il Centro features a Fashion Court, inspired by London's Covent Garden, which is home to some of the most important international brands, including the first Primark in Italy (7,000m² on two levels), H&M, Zara, Massimo Dutti, Superdry, MAC, and more. Flagship jewellery stores the likes of Swarovski and La Bottega del Regalo appear in their dedicated Palazzo, and Iper la Grande has been transformed into a Market Place where fresh products of the hypermarket are brought into the mall in permanent kiosks where guests can experience live cooking shows, consume in situ or carry away freshly made meals. The Market Place climbs with a ramp from the ground floor to a large restaurant court on the first floor, resembling the ramp of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The green and multi-strata polycarbonate roof structure is made from sustainable materials and supported by 40m long timber beams, representing one of the largest wooden structures ever built in Europe for a shopping mall. The entire complex is designed according to strict criteria of energy saving and bio-sustainability, in line with the standards promoted by the U.S. Green Building Council to achieve LEED Gold level certification.
Tall trees enrich retail streets both outside and inside, creating a real garden with kiosks and restaurants, bike trails, children's games and other activities related to sport and health. Il Centro also has a medical centre managed by Humanitas.
Davide Padoa commented: "Il Centro has transformed the old site of Alfa Romeo from a factory of cars to a factory of experiences, with the largest number of brands ever realised in Italy within a new, larger, porous generation of Malls, where indoor and outdoor spaces live in synchrony. Drawing Il Centro was like painting a town, with the habits and tastes of its citizens in mind."
