Design International wins European Property Awards for Maximall Pompeii project
Two years after the beginning of the works, with the construction site proceeding rapidly, Maximal Pompeii has been selected by the International Property Award as the best project in the category "Retail Architecture" in Italy. Some years have passed since the team at Design International was commissioned to realize a project that could represent a socio-cultural hub for the Vesuvian area; collectively the will of public institutions and IRGEN RE GROUP, developer of the project, came to realize an intervention that would enhance and while further enriching the incredible historical and tourist value of the area of ancient Pompeii. The award comes as further confirmation of the project's worthiness.
Davide Padoa, CEO of Design International, says: "The architectural concept tends to repurpose in a modern way the structure that characterizes ancient Pompeii, a succession of green areas, public and "private" spaces, paths joined together by an ideal new Via dell'Abbondanza, a pedestrian axis that lets the eye wander between the sea, the city and Vesuvius.
Paolo Negri, CEO of IRGENRE GROUP, continues: “I believe that shopping centres have to reinvent themselves by following new logics and putting in place new strategies that encourage the implementation of "experiential commerce": a shift from the classic mall as a place used only for shopping to a new format that can provide a complete experience, including entertainment. Driven by the passion and the will to create a different and innovative product, we decided to invest in the construction of the Shopping Resort Maximall Pompeii where the choice of the name "resort" is not casual but expresses the desire to ensure customers a state of well-being during the visit. Shopping, Hospitality, Entertainment and Emotion will be the drivers that will characterize our intervention with a concrete impact generated by extraordinary elements such as the dancing fountain or inimitable flavours such as those that will offer our huge food court”.
Roberto Sibiano, Design Manager of Design International, explains: "The project proposes, on a total area of about 200,000 sqm, a multifunctional complex of 67,000 sqm at the service of the community, which includes a multiplex cinema, a hotel designed on the model of the Domus that enriched the excavations of Pompeii, a square for events with water games, an amphitheatre and a rich restaurant offer. All of this is housed in an "open-air building" where light and the "Neapolitan blue" are a fundamental part of our way of interpreting shopping malls, which are no longer simple retail locations, but spaces for the community".
Salvo Rizzo, Project Leader of Design International, concludes: "The project promotes a broader and complex system of territorial development that embraces the entire strip of coastline from the Port of Torre Annunziata to Castellammare di Stabia, integrating and mediating the existing urban fabric thanks to the new 85,000 sqm public park (of which about 25,000 sqm of roof garden), a place to meet and play, accessible all year round, where playgrounds, urban gardens and tree-lined paths follow one another without interruption".
These were the characteristics that led to the awarding of the International Property Award (www.propertyawards.net), which for twenty-eight years has annually rewarded the most innovative projects in the world. Maximall Pompeii, which should see the inauguration of phase one by 2023, will therefore represent a culmination in the long history of Design International's constant search for solutions and design proposals that put people and the community at the centre.
