Shopping "Senza Confini" in the three-country corner Slovenia, Italy and Austria is the agenda for this „first“completely themed Shopping Center of the SPAR-Group Austria. What was initially the motto for the multi-country Olympic entry of Carinthia has been adopted and developed by the architecture in many ways and interprets the thought of “borders and border-integration” in differing manners. An obvious sign of this theme is the separation of the three building envelopes relating to the country colours – Red for Austria, Green for Italy and Blue for Slovenia.
The individual structures of the 13m high shopping complex are grouped around the central plaza. Above this 50 by 60 meter area, a great atrium space is covered with a spacious glass roof. Steel-reinforced wood laminate beams with free spans of 33 meters form the supporting structure for the glass roof, the skin of which is covered with a special transparent and patterned solar control film. The roof structure is pierced by a cylindrical tower with an elliptical base which has shops in the ground floor and eateries in the first floor.

To avoid overheating in summer, a project-specific CLIMAPLUS insulated glass composition with a g-value of 14% and light transmittance of 15% was developed for the roof glazing. Both outer and inner sheets were made of STADIP laminated safety glass of heat-strengthened glass, whereby in the outer sheet a combination of STADIP COLOR and STADIP ARTE was used for solar control and design. The glass combination was also used in the facade to create a patchwork design effect within the typical SUNEX 50/25 units. In total approximately 1,700 m² of glass was supplied.

Designed by ATP Architekten und Ingenieure, this shopping centre was awarded the Energy Globe Award 2007 (the World Award for Sustainability) for energy efficient buildings and won 2nd place in the Carinthia regional prize.

(Photos 1-4: Thomas Jantscher, 5-7: Peter Freyka, 8 and 9: Elke Visciotti)