ELEGANT, ENERGY-EFFICIENT BORY MALL – THE NEW SHOPPING CENTER IN BRATISLAVA

Bory Mall is the latest and one of the largest shopping centre in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The investor, Penta, a Central European investment group, had clear criteria regarding the type of shopping centre to be built.

“Construction has an essential role in the development of the Bory area. Services must be established in the area before work on residential construction can begin. In time, the area will be home to dwellings, retail, parks, services and public transport connections,” says architect Dusan Sevela from Penta Invest working on the Bory Mall project.

The shopping centre is in the northwest of Bratislava in an area with no similar centre earlier. Bory Mall also attracts customers from outside the capital, especially from the direction of the E65 motorway to Brno in the Czech Republic.

Especially with families in mind

The construction of Bory Mall took two and a half years and was opened just in time for the Christmas season. The shopping centre consists of three storeys and covers an area of 54,000 square metres, equivalent to the size of almost seven football pitches. The shops, cafes and other services are located on the top two floors and parking is on the lower floor. All floors can be directly accessed from outside.

Design of the shopping centre has especially taken into account families with children. The centre is home to the largest play area and children’s centre, where the youngest members of the family can play at being shop assistants and other occupations, for example.

Architectural added value

In future, Bory Mall will form the centre of an entire city area. Naturally, one of the requirements was that the centre would excellently meet this purpose. In addition, Penta’s criteria included a high standard of architecture and energy efficiency.

“When proper attention is paid to architecture, you can achieve a high standard which costs no more than average architecture,” says Dusan Sevela, an architect himself.

A shopping centre of a high architectural standard will also increase the value of the dwellings to be built later in the area.

Good looks and savings with Ruukki Forma™

The walls and roof of a building are of great importance as far as energy efficiency is concerned. Airtight structures reduce the energy required for heating and cooling, which in turn results in cost savings. Bory Mall is applying for BREEAM environmental certification. Ruukki Forma™ was used in the construction of Bory Mall. Developed by Ruukki, Ruukki Forma™ is as complete façade system based on the Ruukki energy panel system and façade cladding to make an airtight wall structure.

“Wall structures from rival manufacturers were also considered in the early stage of the project. Forma combines the advantages of airtightness and architectonic suitability. Another advantage is the 2-centimetre gap for cables and leads between the wall panel and Liberta Grande rainscreen panel. Ruukki Forma™ improves the appearance of thefaçade,” Sevela says.

The combined wall structure and façade also means other advantages. The building was protected from the weather much faster since there is no need to fear possible damage to the façade surface from worksite machinery, for example. The façade could be installed at the final stage.

Making architectural choices a reality

An architect is always looking for design solutions. Often manufacturers of building components keep to their own products without any alternative solutions.

”Ruukki was an active partner in the project and wanted to find alternative solutions to solve the architectonic details. Another benefit was that Ruukki came to the construction site to seek solutions. The best end result is obtained by acting openly and in a good team spirit,” notes Sevela.

Dusan Sevela obviously values an active spirit when introducing alternatives, customer service.

“Ruukki always provided information about the possibilities, and focused on how the customer’s choices could be made reality. A good example of the service received was creating the round corners of the shopping centre in accordance with the plans, even though Ruukki had no suitable products in its portfolio. Ruukki helped us to achieve what we set out to achieve.”