MareMà is a shopping mall designed by Area-17 and INRES within Parco Commerciale Grosseto, a significant intervention of urban renovation of the area north of Grosseto.The architectural design is inspired by the idea of a traditional city market, a permeable space that brings together people developing commercial and social relationships. Actions take place under a vast, distinctive, unifying roof, where outdoors and indoors are blurred as the city enters the gallery with its warren of streets and perspectives.

A wide glulam roofing delimits the area devoted to commercial activities. On a structural level, the free-standing roof slab is totally independent from the underlying sale space. It defines a function without compelling its developments and dynamics, even the architectural ones. The curved volumes that host the commercial activities are therefore located on an open plan, floating shapes with a virtually changeable character that can vary according to the market’s new needs.

On the outside, the curved volumes are cladded in metal sheets of iridescent colors that reflect the sunlight, though softening it. They are framed into wide ceiling-to-wall windows that work as functional yet not visual filters between the exteriors and the interiors. As a result, the commercial gallery is especially airy and bright, thanks also to a system of bespoke lighting fixtures of a strong visual impact designed by Area-17 specifically for the shopping mall.

Photography by Pietro Savorelli