Program
We were glad to be invited by Apsys and Union investment to think about the renovation of Manufaktura shopping mall interior design. As author of the original design this was quite natural but also challenging. After 14 years of operation, the center needed to be refreshed and the design to be upgraded to the nowadays standards and customers needs. As the project from its opening has a great success, with a unique identity, our main goal was to do a natural evolution of the interiors but to not loose manufaktura DNA. Then our main inspiration remains the city of Lodz and its culture of textile, cinema, fashion and modern art. In order to reinforce the industrial character of the site we changed the color of the steel structure and frames inside the building from white to the same dark grey colors like the structure of the historical factory buildings. Inside the shopping gallery we used under the skylight a new wall finishing for which the colors are changing with the sky reflection and your own movement within the mall. This is a reference to the kinetic modern art approach. Also a monumental industrial sculpture that will be installed inside the mall will reinforce even more this link with the modern art as a living installation that will be probably one of the most impressing interior playground for kids within a shopping center in Poland. Floor finishing were changed in some part and for the main entrance to the shopping center from the rynek we have decided to continue the square pattern within the building in order to increase to continuity between the entrance and the public square. For this monumental entrance to the building from the rynek we bring also a new treatment of the canopy with back lit perforated panels that will express in the night the famous Manufaktura flower pattern.
This renovation was also the occasion to incorporate the latest new technology within the mall like the ring of LED screens within the central square of the shopping mall that will project the Manufaktura indentity or the new resting zones that will improve the visitors comfort and that will have all connectivity for smart phones. The most important transformation of this refurbishment will be probably the food-court for which we created a new skylight in order to bring more natural light inside the food-hall area for which we have changed totally the interior finishing and furnitures. The atmosphere will be more causy with a spectacular back lit acoustic ceiling for which we designed a new pattern that was inspired by the historical textile fabrics. This new motif will be declined a bit everywhere in the mall in the interior finishing. Last but not least, the all lighting of the shopping mall and the food-court was redesigned and changed in order to improve energy consuming efficiency and to reinforce also in the night the artistic illumination of the site and the magic of Manufaktura.