One Works recently completed "Le Cucine di Curno", the new Food Hall at Curno Shopping Center, one of the most important shopping destination in the Bergamo area.
As an extension to the busy shopping mall, this new space has been designed to create a new destination for shoppers and staff. Using natural and quality materials, the interior promotes relaxation and sociability to help tackle the challenges put forward by eCommerce.
The overall project is articulated as a large oval square designed according to the latest trends in retail spaces dedicated to Food & Beverage, with 17 restaurants and 600 seats. A "smart & simple" area, medium-sized, linear and well connected to the existing gallery of the Curno shopping center.
Impressive new spaces
The introduction of new volumes has redesigned the central façade with a new dynamic 20m glass front and now provides a new access point, as a meeting place that can also function autonomously.
Based on the aggregative function of restaurants, new spaces have been designed to reinforce the social identity of the Shopping Center and proves its ability to recognise trends, accommodate social changes and welcome the renewed needs of customers.
The large 5,400sqm food court has been be surmounted by a vault with a complex geometry 17 meters high, whose structure will be interspersed with glazed portions that allow natural light to illuminate and warm the spaces below.
A warming terracotta exterior
The external cladding composed of vertical terracotta slats has been designed to harmonize the new extension with the existing building, while the choice of different shades of color, texture and size allows dynamicity to the facade.
In order to maximize the interaction between inside and outside, many of the restaurants have been equipped with external dehors. With the same purpose, in front of the building opens a large square that connects the new restaurants with the commercial axis of Via Fermi, where publicly available activities and events will take place. Two new green spaces have also been designed to encourage shoppers and staff to optimize the space available during the summer months.
Sustainability at the centre
The theme of environmental sustainability runs at the core of "Le Cucine di Curno" in all phases of the project. The new extension has been designed to international BREEAM standards, adopting plant and architectural solutions aimed to guarantee both energy and water-sanitary needs whilst ensuring consumption and operating costs are kept to a minimum. The new food hall has also be designed to facilitate effective maintenance, flexibility of use and provides environmental conditions necessary for the performance of activities and help promote the well-being of shoppers and staff.
«We chose One Works because we needed a dsign firm that together with us could interpret the macro trends that are marking the evolution of shopping centers, with the same our own international vision of the world and the same attention to style and detail that sets us apart». Roberto Fraticelli, Director for Italy of Eurocommercial Properties
A new cost effective parking solution
In addition to the new food hall, One Works was also appointed to design a new multi-storey car park with a total of 798 new parking spaces.
Located on an area occupied by an existing parking lot at ground level and delimited on two sides, One Works was keen to avoid further land consumption by efficiently phasing the projects. The new facilities were designed to minimize the volumetric impact with a building that is configured as partially hypogean.
Built-in a few months and implemented with a flexible and light steel structure with collaborating ceilings, the car park is an example of cost and material optimization, with consequent benefits on all the project phases and sustainability aspects.
“The concept of the project derives from an exact vision and objectives. On one side, the increasing need for people to recover a sociality based on relationships and personal interaction - a trend that is increasingly interpreted as the desire for a new humanism in the digital era. On the other side, the opportunity to enhance food & beverage and conviviality as assets to increase the attractiveness and sales performance of a Shopping Center.”
