Emporia | Wingårdhs

Emporia is an urban planning project in which offices, housing, and retail come together in a mixed-use development along Boulevarden and Stationsgatan in Hyllie, on the south side of Malmö. SPECTACULAR ARCHITECTURE Emporia was designed by Wingårdhs, one of Sweden’s most internationally recognised firms of architects. The architecture reflects the fact that Emporia is a sanctuary, a place for surprises. The building is both airy and enclosed. It represents both openness and curiosity, and it also creates a bubble around the exciting world of Emporia. Emporia’s logo, which radiates softness and warmth, is designed on the basis of the large Amber Entrance. Despite a period of financial unrest, cold winters and rainy summers, construction has gone according to plan since starting in February 2008. THE ENTRANCES – THE BIG CHALLENGE What makes Emporia unique is that Steen & Ström has chosen to create a shopping centre with a wide range of different aesthetic qualities. The biggest challenge in the construction process itself was to implement the innovative entrances, the Amber Entrance and the Sea Entrance. Converting Gert Wingårdh’s unique design concept into reality required elite engineering. The task was carried out by suppliers including the manufacturer Folcrá in Barcelona, which had left its mark on Malmö earlier when it manufactured Turning Torso’s white façade. The over 800 coloured panes of glass were all bent into unique shapes similar to the peel of an orange segment. Double panes of glass were placed in a mould which was heated to 540 degrees, causing the glass to soften and be moulded by its own weight in the contours of the mould. A thin plastic film gives the glass its true colour of amber or marine blue. The panes of glass and the steel frame were shipped separately from Spain to Malmö, where the parts were finally assembled into the basket-like structure that makes up the entrances. To make it possible to assemble the structure, the various parts had to fit with millimetre precision.