Phoenix Einkaufszentrum, Hamburg

The glass external façades of this shoppers’ paradise form a modern gateway to Hamburg’s city centre. The ECE architectural team Jost Hering, Klaus M. Hoffmann, Martin Echterkamp and Matthias Peglau have created three light-flooded promenade levels providing 26,000m², enough space for around 110 shops, cafes and restaurants. Added to this are more than 2,400m² for incorporation of modern and flexibly divisible office and amenity areas. In this 145-million-euro project, around 5,000m² of glass and 36,000 kg of aluminium have been incorporated for the shop windows, interior doors, fire barriers and sound insulation measures. The centrally located shopping mall is a major point of attraction for a catchment area comprising around 562,000 inhabitants. On the customer services side, the centre offers more than 1,600 parking spaces, with telephone and banking services also available together with a special customer information unit, plenty of seats, disabled-access lifts and customer toilets, not to mention kiddy cars and baby changing rooms.