Liverpool Department Store | Rojkind Arquitectos

Liverpool Department Store, built in Xonacatlán, Mexico on the outskirts of Mexico City, the new Liverpool department store is a creature of its environment. Located in a car-dominated area of the city which is unwelcoming and most inhospitable to pedestrians, the firm Rojkind Arquitectos was commissioned to design an appropriate exterior for the store.

The scheme has been described as ‘Blader-Runner like’. Streamline lines wrap the building, formed by bands of stainless steel cladding which overlap and run into one another. The building is located on a plot where several highways and overpasses culminate and slip past each other, an area of high energy which is translated and into the store’s sweeping facade.

Where the bands of cladding overlap each other, small reliefs are created which are used to conceal lights to be used during the night hours. When the sun sets, these lights create strips of lights that bathe the facade, monochromatic during the day, into an energetic and dynamic light show at night.

It was decided by the clients that the dynamism exhibited on the exterior should be translated into the building’s central access core, and thus retained Rojkind Arquitectos for this area as well. Other designers who were are part of the building are FRCH (interiors), Thomas Balsley (rooftop garden) and JHP (Gourmet space). The central atrium is a three story space, day lit from a spanning glass roof. The flow and movement of the exterior is scaled down to meet the human scale and wraps the space in the form of curved, backlit balconies, encouraging visitors’ movement throughout the retail spaces.

Project info:
Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos
Country: Mexico, Xonacatlán
Area: 30000 m²
Year: 2011
Photographs: Courtesy of Rojkind Arquitectos