Citylife Shopping District
The mall designed by Zaha Hadid also includes a cinema and plenty of showrooms.
The CityLife Shopping District, inaugurated in Milan last December, got off on the right foot, also due to the nearby catchment area which includes the more than 5,000 employees of the Allianz and Generali Towers. And in three years’ time, forecasts indicate there will be around seven million visitors per year. A great result considering the shopping centre, the penultimate phase of the CityLife real-estate project – the last piece being the tower designed by Daniel Libeskind scheduled to be completed by the end of this year – will have to do battle with the competition of nearby malls such as the “Centro” shopping centre of Arese (see Realtà Mapei International no. 59).
With a floor space of 32,000 m2, the CityLife Shopping District is now the largest urban shopping centre in Italy. Inside the centre there are around one hundred different brands offering an extensive range of goods, some of which will be making their debut in Italy, including leading fashion brands, a mark of prestige for the centre compared with its rivals, restaurants, and an area dedicated to other services, such as a cinema.
The mall was designed by the architect Zaha Hadid, who used bamboo to dress floor-to-ceiling columns to make them look like trees.
HUAWEI STORE
One of the new names that will be appearing for the first time in Italy, and also in Europe, is the Chinese telephony brand Huawei, which will be fitted out with cutting-edge, eco-sustainable systems.
To make the floors, Mapei Technical Services recommended using ULTRATOP ultra-fast setting, self-levelling mortar. The first step was to prime the surface with PRIMER SN epoxy pre-fillerized primer. ULTRATOP, in its light grey color shade, was then applied in a layer with an average thickness of 2 cm. To help the floor maintain its colour over the years, it was then protected with a coat of MAPEFLOOR FINISH 58 W, two-component polyurethane finish in water dispersion.
ADIDAS SHOWROOM
The floor in the Adidas showroom was also made from ULTRATOP to obtain floors with a very attractive finish which is also particularly resistant to abrasion. The colour chosen by the designers was light grey with a ROC (Rugged Old Concrete) effect that makes it look like used concrete, with worn areas and marks typical of floors found in old, reconverted buildings. MAPEFLOOR FINISH 630 protective acrylic filming agent was used to complete the final finish providing an anti-dust treatment.
CITY LIFE ANTEO CINEMA
The CityLife Shopping District also has a cinema with seven screens and seating for 1,200 cinemagoers. Each screen has been named after one of the historic Milan cinemas that have been closed down over the years: Ariston, Aurora, Capitol, Corallo, Maestoso, Mignon and Zenit. In each of the screens areas, before installing vinyl floor covering, the substrates were smoothed to make them perfectly flat with PLANIPATCH ultra-fast setting thixotropic finishing mortar with very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC). To improve their resistance to abrasion, LIVIGUM synthetic resin-based latex in water dispersion was added to the mix.
To bond the wood-effect LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) flooring, Mapei Technical Services recommended using eco-sustainable ULTRABOND ECO V4 SP, an universal adhesive in water dispersion with very low emission of VOC.
