Libeskind-Designed Swiss Shopping and Leisure Centre Opens

14 October 2008 (Last Updated October 14th, 2008 18:30)

A new Daniel Libeskind-designed shopping complex has opened in Bern, Switzerland, and is expected to attract about 3.5 million visitors a year. The £250m Westside Shopping and Leisure Centre, developed by Migros Aare, is spread out over a high-speed motorway. It houses 55 sho

A new Daniel Libeskind-designed shopping complex has opened in Bern, Switzerland, and is expected to attract about 3.5 million visitors a year.

The £250m Westside Shopping and Leisure Centre, developed by Migros Aare, is spread out over a high-speed motorway.

It houses 55 shops and ten restaurants and bars, containing a fitness centre with fun pool, a 144-room hotel and 95 housing apartments.

Externally, the complex is covered in natural timber boarding while internally, it revolves around a multi-storey atrium of criss-crossing galleries and escalators.

The fitness centre, which features a swimming pool served by a 75m "whitewater canyon", has three outsize water slides, one of which spirals outside the building.

By staff writer