Four IV takes over Frankfurt retail scheme

A retail scheme devised by Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, for what is hailed as Europe’s largest shopping centre, has been scrapped, in favour of a design by UK consultancy Four IV.

The branding and retail interiors group is putting the finishing touches to its plans for the €800m (£600m) retail development in Frankfurt, which is backed by developer MAB Bouwfonds.

The consultancy was appointed in 2006, following a three-way credentials pitch against Imagination’s Virgile and Stone and former Conran & Partners director David Chaloner.

Although Fuksas had created the original interiors scheme for the retail section, MAB Bouwfonds is thought to have been concerned that it did not fully address the centre’s retail and commercial needs.

Four IV creative director Andy Bone explains that his team was brought on board to tone down the scheme, in a bid to give it more commercial appeal.

‘Fuksas has created a brilliant organic, futuristic design, but the developer was concerned about its coolness. Our brief was to create something softer and warmer,’ Bone says.

The site for the development spans 17 400m2, and is being developed into a mixed-use complex with retail, offices, residential space and a hotel, due to open in the autumn.