As the leading luxury department store of Berlin, if not all of Germany, KaDeWe is a revered fixture in the city’s retail landscape, annd it’s one with a history which dates back 115 years. Nowadays owned by Bangkok-based retail behemoth Central Group, it’s part of the company’s string of prestigious departments stores in Thailand, Southeast Asia and Europe. Aiming to maintain its stature, KaDeWe recently revealed an awe-inspiring sculptural, timber-clad escalator and revamped retail spaces, designed by architect Ellen van Loon at acclaimed Dutch architecture practice OMA. Following five years of renovation, 14,000 sqm. (150,695 sq.ft.) of renewed retail space has been inaugurated, and which forms part of an ongoing redevelopment of the entire premises. Anchored by the aforementioned escalator which sits in a newly created vault and connects all floors. The renewal sees four quadrants, each with different architectural and commercial purposes, but also targeted at different audiences—classic, experimental, young, and generic. Also, each quadrant addresses a different street entrance and is organised around its core void acting both as a main central atrium and a primary vertical distribution space. The void on each of the nine levels varies, , avoiding any repetition and making every floor unique. KaDeWe‘s renewed spaces include the women’s designer section, the men’s designer section and the beauty and fragrance section.
KaDeWe
Tauentzienstrasse 21-24 (Schöneberg)
10789 Berlin
Telephone: +49 30 21210
Mon-Thu 10am-8pm
Fri 10am-9pm
Sat 10am-8pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
