Commercial Center Auchan

Colour and form seek a rapport with nature in this shopping mall designed in harmony with the context. A graphic abstraction with a Japanese slant to it creates overtones which, by virtue of the handling and bright colouring, dialogue with the local geography and comment ironically on the anonymity of the commercial buildings. Given the small pool of clients in the Cuneo area and the nature of the site, the Rinascente Auchan group regarded it as appropriate to lavish special attention on this facility, considering it as a sort of pilot project. Like others, it consists of a hypermarket with arcades and a sequential centre of medium-sized surfaces, but the usual impersonal aggregation of simple volumes is enriched by the narrative interpretation of the elevations.
The project intervenes in unbuilt spaces in the countryside framed by the nearby Alps. From the point of view of spatial organization, it maintains the standard distributive features, formulated to ensure functionality,
rational spaces and economy. To the repetitious structure of the prefabricated containers it however applied an architectural facade which modifies the formal features of the envelope on the outside. Just as flats on a stage transform simple vertical supports with appropriate techniques, so the colours and curves of the facades modify the character of the supporting panels in reinforced concrete and the sheet metal roofing.
The sinusoidal profiles evoke the outlines of the nearby mountains, while the strident tones of green and yellow, though avoiding mimetic landscaping, present themselves as the explicit and artificial interpretation of the fields of corn and the neighbouring meadows. The prisms embedded in elevations, which signal the entrances, were conceived as transparent boxes illuminated from inside, large lanterns visible from a distance.
Then realized as screens illuminated by external frontal lights, they however retain their function of a landmark as envisaged. The bright red of the prisms declares the colour symbol of Auchan’s corporate identity, while dark blue was chosen for the buildings of the sequential centre, completing the palette of primary colours which characterize the project.

credit

Project : Benedetto Camerana
Consultant: Matteo Casati
Type: Shopping mall
Client: Gruppo Rinascente – Auchan
Procedure: Direct assignment
Chronology: Preliminary 2001, permit and construction design 2002-2003, completed 2004
Location: Cuneo
Collaborators: Hermann Kohllöffel, Mike Palmore
Elena Biasco, Mauro Comoli, Daniela Favero, Alessandro Rigazio, Massimiliano Secco, Andrea Tonin
Gross floor area: 40.000 sqm
Building cost: 41.316.551,93 €
Photo credits: Alberto Piovano