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Architects: Kokaistudios
- Area: 34500 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Terrence Zhang
Text description provided by the architects. Kokaistudios’ recently completed architectural renovation project of the CITIC SQUARE shopping mall epitomizes Shanghai’s inherent duality. With a futuristic aesthetic combining multimedia elements and some of today’s most sought-after brands, it sits seamlessly alongside one of the city’s best-preserved examples of traditional, historic lane housing. Located in the Jingan district on the main thoroughfare Nanjing West Road, the transformed building’s pixel-inspired facade and carefully selected materials break the traditional ‘box’ shape to blur the boundaries between city and mall, public and private. Completed in 2000, the mall lacked several of the elements demanded by today’s lifestyle-led retail environment: flexible multimedia components; attractive outdoor spaces; and eye-catching interiors for high-profile, luxury F&B outlets. Kokaistudios’ interior and exterior renovation not only brings the mall up to date in terms of a destination shopping-hospitality experience, it successfully reintegrates CITIC SQUARE into the fabric of Shanghai by opening up previously hidden vistas and playing on the scale to complement the mall’s layered urban context.
