Highest requirements – highest quality

Emporia is not just any shopping centre. With 200 shops on three floors, a sales area of 68,000m2 and an average of 25,000 visitors per day, it is one of the largest malls in Scandinavia. The demands and expectations were correspondingly high. Therefore, the architects from the Wingårdh office left nothing to chance and also paid attention to visual and functional perfection in the details – for example with the entrance mats from emco.

Emporia is first and foremost an urban development project with a mix of living, working and commercial space in the south of Malmö,” says architect Gert Wingårdh. The first building block of the large-scale project is the shopping centre of the same name. Currently still a solitaire, it is not intended to be just that – the idea is rather to integrate the mall into an urban structure. The only connecting point between the street and the shopping centre is the entrance. Therefore, its design has a very special role to play.

In line with the desired effect – to “suck” visitors and shoppers into the building’s interior – the entrance area curves diagonally inwards from the straight bronze-coloured glass façade. It owes its name to its organic shape and its glassy, brown appearance: the Amber Entrance.

Patterns and colours set the tone

The interior development follows the figure of a lying eight. Three atriums – each with a different design theme – offer visitors good orientation within the building.

The interior design of the Emporia clearly deviates from the usual ambience of a shopping centre. Strong colours and curved visual axes break with existing norms. Due to the demands that a project of this size entails, the architects were also commissioned to design the entire interior architecture: from ceilings, floors and shop fronts to signage, planting and furniture.

“Our motto was ‘no average’. The interior design is characterised by overarching patterns and intricate details.” explains Gert Wingårdh. The terazzo floor is a good example of this design approach. The large-format pattern, based on triangles, changes colour from white to dark grey in seven steps, interrupted by coloured mirror glass.

“In a project of this magnitude and with this demand, both the design quality and the detailing must be right. In addition to outstanding function, the entrance mats from emco deliver both.”

Gert Wingårdh,
Architect

Quality is the best basis

To ensure that the floor remains permanently of high quality despite the heavy load of 25,000 visitors per day, the architects rely on the functionality of entrance mats from the emco brand. But it is not only functionally that they fit perfectly into the architecture of the shopping centre. The high quality underlines the aspirations of the building. In terms of design, the architects make use of the diversity and flexibility of the entrance mat. Sometimes it is used as a “runner”, sometimes it is used over the entire surface. The generous curves of the large-format revolving door can also be easily traced with the mat – both indoors and outdoors. Supports that stand in the area of the mat are simply left out. This creates a coherent overall concept and a special shopping experience right from the start.