Mega Silk Way wins International Property Award for “Best International Retail Architecture”
Mega Silk Way in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, has won the 2019 International Property Award for “Best International Retail Architecture.”
The project won the award at a ceremony at The Savoy Hotel in London on 2 December, after earlier winning “Best Retail Architecture, Asia-Pacific”.
Mega Silk Way is a 60,000m² GLA retail and entertainment project which opened to much acclaim in March 2017. Built within the masterplan for EXPO 2017, the centre includes retail, restaurants, Kazakhstan’s first IMAX cinema, a 400-seat ice rink, children’s entertainment areas and an indoor rollercoaster.
Mega Silk Way is the major gateway to the EXPO site, which now functions as Kazakhstan’s World Trade Centre, and has acted as a legacy emblem since EXPO’s conclusion. The development is a beautiful public space which is enjoyed by an estimated two million people per month for its variety of attractions, and it has become a landmark symbol of local and national pride.
The shopping centre represents a transformation in retail development thinking – a friendly, enjoyable shopping space, but also a community hub. Retail is important, and thriving, but the scheme centres on providing a local public space and meeting point.
The striking design feels essentially Kazakh – responding to how locals perceive space and what kind of provisions appeal to them, while using works by local creatives to foster a sense of local ownership of the development. The design is sustainable and responsible, befitting a gateway to, and legacy symbol of, EXPO 2017.
The global International Property Award is a world-renowned mark of excellence and this award demonstrates Chapman Taylor’s leading retail design credentials and our ability to deliver creative and commercially successful buildings.
Congratulations to Astana Group and to everyone who worked on this ambitious scheme, which has become an economic catalyst for the city and the country.