A building complex in downtown Graz. Four houses, different heights, unclear entrances and crossings. The aim in the new planning of the nearly 7,000 square meters of sports store was to optimize the orientation for customers with a consistent design concept and to create a unique environment.
The idea of using the Graz backdrop as a strategic design theme emerged from inside the houses. From one building you look towards the historic old town, from the other towards the Kunsthaus, from the next towards the Mur and from the fourth towards the Schlossberg. Thus, the motifs for the four houses were set: city, art, river and mountain. These can be seen in the respective color and material world. Warm grey tones and concrete represent the city, clear grey and metal for art, petrol and wood for the river, grey-blue tones and stone for the mountain. The colors are deliberately used in the room to make it clear which building you are in and also to show the transition from one house to the other in a striking way.
The floor coverings and wall colors change depending on the building. The latter are specifically used in the townhouse to accentuate focus walls and highlight niches and at the same time loosen up the path through the long and narrow room.
Access to the Berghaus is via a narrow, tapering tunnel on all floors. This is characterized in the same place in all levels by a design bracket: a light installation, sometimes with wood, sometimes with white metal. On the second floor you can see the Kunsthaus with its own color scheme from there. A stylized hut is built into a niche with a large panorama window. In winter, in keeping with the ski season, it is filled with firewood, a fireplace and fur; in summer, hammocks and cork rugs give it a tropical flair and create a link to the bathing and beach range.
The number of floors by name has been reduced to provide even more clarity in the building structure. Today, Gigasport speaks of the main levels; ground floor, 1, 2 and 3. The split levels are not shown as separate floors, but are referred to as 0+, 1+, 2+ and 3+.
As with Gigasport in Brunn am Gebirge, the corporate design also flows into the design of the sales rooms in Graz. There is a ceiling-high focus wall on all floors in the transition from the mountain to the art house with flexible slats for highlighting goods, which catch the eye with its bright orange background color. The 78.5 ° inclination of the company logo can be found in the polygenic cubes, which are placed individually or grouped into islands in the central area. The free positioning plays charmingly with the peculiarity of the building complex that it has no front and no back.
Gigasport is one of the five largest sports retailers in Austria and offers everything for and around sport and stands for competence, the highest quality, service and shopping experience. Other locations besides Graz are in Klagenfurt, Wolfsberg, Brunn am Gebirge, Oberwart, Liezen, Fürstenfeld, Spittal, Villach, Bärnbach, Bad Ischl, Fohnsdorf, Lienz, Innsbruck, Kapfenberg / St. Lorenzen, Leoben.
