​In the year 2011 Detail Design was appointed by St. Jakob-Park shopping centre in Basel to work out a creative design concept for refreshing the public area and bring it to live again. Over the past two decades the elder part of the shopping centre was getting on in the years and the newer wing which was only a few years old provided a rather cold impression. Detail Design created a new sculptured park landscape which provided a staged park atmosphere. The entire retail area of St. Jakob-Park is located in the basement of the building and has no natural daylight. With the staged park landscape we managed to bring in some sort of sculptured nature and this creative idea still creates smiles on the visitor’s faces.
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An underground park
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Sculptured trees out of metal cover the existing concrete columns of the building. The columns became almost invisible by having them covered with dark mirrored panels. The entire ceiling including the infrastructural installations were painted dark grey. The large illumination panels symbolise the daylight shining through the crown of the trees.
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Even the large space above the escalators leading up to outside was designed with a giant tree crown visual. For us as designers this was a clever method to symbolise nature thirteen meters underneath the ground, all illuminated with invisible and indirect wall washers.
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The entire public space also incorporates a couple of seating zones for visitors and guests as one can find in public parks. In such areas visitors of the shopping centre are able to take a shopping break and enjoy some of the offered take-away products.
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After reopening of the public area of St. Jakob-Park the shopping center generated over 8% more turnover. For Detail Design this result is the best compliment a design agency can achieve.