Shopping with style – Stilwerk Dusseldorf enjoys a prime location close to Dusseldorf’s Königsallee. The brief received by sop architekten was not simply to turn it into one of Dusseldorf’s prime shopping addresses, but also to deal with the site’s high density. Its five stories contain 42 upmarket shops, all focussing on interior design and decoration.

This basic idea became the central theme of the project which places all the shops on an equal footing, grouping them around a central point from which they can all be seen at a glance. The resulting 32m-high elliptical space invites the shopper to wander around the gallery, while the atrium – complete with an opening glass roof which provides a breath-taking view of the sky – serves as a presentation, meeting and rest area. Stilwerk Düsseldorf won the 2000 BDA Prize.