Architecture / Commercial+Retail / Croydon Central Shopping Centre
Croydon Central Shopping Centre
The Croyon Central Shopping Centre project provides for the complete rebuilding of an existing facility, expanding the retail floor area from 9000 m2 to 25,000 m2, while also expanding the range of retail offerings to include a discount department store, 65 specialty shops, a new food court and replacements for the two supermarkets existing on the site. Above all, the centre responds to the unique character of Croydon, known as the gateway to the Yarra Ranges, a part of Victoria well known for its native forests. By contrast, much of Croydon is a quite tough urban environment, and the design seeks to provide a bridge between enhancing the urban environment and responding to the natural assets of the area.
The facades are inspired by the interpretation of the Australian forest by Australian artists: an abstract patterning of vertical and inclined lines in the muted colours of Australian landscape provides a suitable backdrop for a themed landscape solution, which proposes distinct colour themes for the various street frontages.
This language is overlaid with a more urban expression on the primary street frontage at Wicklow Avenue, and here the design takes advantage of the fall of the site to leave open opportunities for connections and revitalization of the Croydon Town Centre and adjacent railway station, with high level pedestrian linkages and capacity for future mixed use development, creating a truly diverse and sophisticated urban environment.
The layout of the building is also progressive, inverting the normal model of the shopping centre as a box in a carpark by concealing the majority of cars under the building, and enclosing it in an active perimeter of retail and commercial uses, that activate the adjoining public realm. Where the centre adjoins existing residential areas, it is placed largely underground, providing a sensitive response to these interfaces while leaving open the possibility of future residential infill above the retail uses, promising the ideal of a fully pedestrianized environment linking residential to retail to transport infrastructure and the existing Croydon Main Street beyond.
Internally, use of natural light and innovations in environmental sustainability will give the centre leadership among Victorian shopping environments, and the mall will be provided with unexpected vistas to the surrounding Yarra Ranges, again inverting the normally introspective and hermetic model of the retail mall.
Project Team
Demaine Partnership
Client
PCL Prattcorp
Location
Kent Avenue and Wicklow Avenue, Croydon
Project Elements
Retail Mall, 2 x Supermarkets, Discount Department Store, 5 x Mini Majors, 65 Specialty Shops, Food Court, Services, Residential.
Builder
PCL Prattcorp
Time to complete
4 years
Type of Facility
Retail Mall