Later this month, Médiacité, a new shopping and entertainment center with some exciting green features will open up in the center of Liège, Belgium. Located nearby the new train station, Gare des Guillemins by Santiago Calatrava, Médiacité will help rehabilitate the central city economically and culturally. With sweeping lines, advanced materials and environmentally aware design and construction, the new shopping center is an exciting new urban infill project and will surely be a big hit.
Centrally located and easily accessible by foot, bike and over 1,000 buses that go by each day, the shopping center is ideally situated in order to reduce carbon emissions of visiting shoppers. The entire shopping center is covered in ETFE with lots of skylights on the roof to bring in natural light. Air quality will be properly maintained through the use of air treatment stations on the roof, and some of the roof (undisclosed amount) has been planted.
Rainwater will be collected from the roof and stored and waste material will be properly sorted. Energy efficiency was also a top priority, and the project includes many energy efficient strategies like allowing the shops limited access to electricity to reduce their consumption, high-efficiency condensing gas boilers and a semi-reflective transparent roofing material that reduces heat gain.
The interior will host ample retail space, a post office, an ice rink, movie theater, bowling alley, as well as restaurants and office space. Designed by London-based Israeli architect, Ron Arad, with the help of Chapman Taylor and RTKL, the Médiacité has earned environmental accreditation under BREEAM. The opening and inauguration of the new center will happen on Tuesday, October 20th.
+ Ron Arad
+ Médiacité
Via designboom
Very innovative one. Unbelievable.