Claudio Silvestrin Architects has completed a shopping outlet in Turin, Italy, that features a 111-metre-high "modern medieval spire".

Built alongside a major road on the outskirts of the city, the Torino Outlet Fashion Village contains 81 shops arranged around two open-air streets.

Claudio Silvestrin Architects marked the location of the 32,000-metre-square shopping centre with a gleaming white tower that stands at the centre of its 290-metre-long facade.

"To communicate the location of the project clearly and effectively with an architectural element was the real challenge," said Claudio Silvestrin, founder of Claudio Silvestrin Architects.

"As an alternative to skyscrapers, common glass-and-concrete towers containing 'boxes', or other such mega-structures that so frequently mark and disturb contemporary urban landscapes, in a moment of lightness I created a purely symbolic vertical element, in appearance devoid of any functional purpose."

The freestanding obelisk rises from either side of the pedestrian entrance to the shopping centre, with the two sections connecting to form a triangular form.

"It functions as the gate-entrance into the fashion mall and, at the same time, as the gate-icon of the territory," continued Silvestrin.

"A modern medieval spire, it is just as assertive by day as it is by night; a purely symbolic element, soaring high up into the sky, but at the same time inviting and signalling the horizon, just as church bell towers did in the past."

Each of the two pedestrianised streets are flanked with shops on either side, with a colonnade running down one side.

Trees are planted along the streets, while water features are placed at intersections and at the centre of the shopping outlet.

The Torino Outlet Fashion Village is one of several shopping centres completed recently. Others include UNStudio's Lane 189 in Shanghai, and a shopping complex in Miami designed by OMA.

Also, earlier this year, it was announced that the late Will Alsop's only African project will be a shopping centre in Kenya.

Photography by Aldo Castoldi.

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Project credits:

Clients: Gruppo Stilo and Torino Fashion Village
Design concept and artistic supervision: Claudio Silvestrin (Principal) Mariachiara Suriani (Project Architect)
Co-ordination and project management: Cogestil
Engineering: BMS Progetti
Lighting concept: Claudio Silvestrin
Green areas planning concept: Claudio Silvestrin
Municipal Project: Studio De8 Associati Artecna
Thermomechanical, electrical and special systems engineering: Manens-Tifs
Landscaping design: Laura Dal Canto with Luisa Perona and Cristina Gragnolati
Site development: Artecna – Sertec

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