The Mall

Zeel Architects

Short description

THE MALL
A building comprised of retail, entertainment, food court, cinema AND a business hotel, will be one of the largest facility in a small city like Solapur, with area available upto 27,000 smt for construction in a narrow rectangular plot of size – 50mt x 175mt.
Being a narrow plot, different activities were segregated as per usability and divided into 3 zones with each zone having a vertical as well as horizontal circulation.
First zone is of banquets which will have high public activity during the party and wedding functions, second zone is mainly for retail and entertainment where footfall will be low but there will be continuous activity and the third zone of Cinemas, which has footfall at certain intervals of time as per movie screening schedule.
Basements are provided for car park and services that needed, first 2 floors are retail, third floor is partly divided into hospitality, food court and cinema entry area while upper floors are for the hotel rooms. Few of the rooms with have balconies have step backs which in turn will get better view of the city.
3 separate area entries created on the ground floor considering the requirement of the various activities of each zone. Landscape is designed in front of the mall with specific consideration. Banquet front will have thick plantation to reduce the noise and will be the visual barrier between the road and the mall, for retail plaza seating is created and corner areas are enhanced with small plants. One part of the terrace is provided for the landscape and the solar panels while the other part is utilized with activities like swimming pool, gymnasium etc, for the hotel.
Being 150mt long elevation on west side, it is not advised to have a full length glass in the elevation as it will generate more heat inside the mall, which will not be comfortable to the visitors and in turn Air conditioning consumption will increase. A longer wall can create monotony hence; this solid block is carved with arches to break the façade which also becomes the shop front. In similar patterns scoops were created for individual identity of each zone.