BE OPEN BLOG

What makes shopping so enjoyable? Today, when e-shopping can bring whatever you might want directly to your door, people visit department stores in search of new emotions. Designed to impress, they are sure to turn the time spent for shopping into a memorable experience, no matter if you buy anything or not.

Berlin-based OMA has won a competition to build The Link hotel and department store in the historical part of Vienna. Commissioned by the German retailer KaDeWe, The Link will parti\ally replace an existing department store, demolishing one half of it while overhauling and building on top of the other.

The new building will be divided into two volumes connected by a ‘green passage’, accessed through several giant archways. It will be lined with hanging plants, and contain public seating and access points to the hotel lobby and roof. Ranging from tree groves to sun decks, these contemporary rooftop public spaces will provide visitors with panoramic views of the Austrian capital. The department store is due for completion in Autumn 2023.

Architecture studio Foster + Partners has created a distinctive presence for Galeries Lafayette, one of Europe’s leading department stores, in central Luxembourg. The striking building with a faceted glass façade is going to be a part of a major mix-use development that will feature ‘places to work, live and play’ that will transform the area in the historic centre into a vibrant urban quarter.

The department store is designed to establish a timeless yet contemporary addition to the existing quarter of the historic city. The 6,500sqm building includes seven storeys, each one dedicated to a single department, and is topped by a sky garden in a structure of faceted glass and steel, which offers panoramic views of the city. The roof light lets daylight into the heart of the store, while providing a strong sense of orientation for visitors.

The façade is made from transparent and bronze-coloured panels and, according to the team, as the sun tracks around the building, the colour, reflection and shadows on the glass animate it like a jewel.

Japanese firm SANAA in collaboration with Édouard François and François Brugel has been working at the project of renovation of La Samaritaine, a large department store in Paris, which once occupied four buildings at the heart of the French capital. The redevelopment of the four buildings will completely transform the complex and will include a department store, a 5-star hotel, social housing, offices, and a children’s nursery.

The department store will be located the lower levels of three of the site’s four buildings, with the main entrance in the central art nouveau  building, topped with an impressive glass roof, which was completed by Frantz Jourdain in the early 1900s. Its historic façade clad in multi-colored enameled tiles is revealed from under a stone-coloured wash and complemented by an eye-catching elevation by SANAA that softens the scale of the building behind it.

The redevelopment has its focus on preserving the site’s original architectural identity, simultaneously replacing the department store’s current inflexible layout with a configuration that promotes circulation, natural light and environmental sustainability. The completion is due in 2020.