STGK Inc. | studio gen kumagai

AEON is the largest retailing group in Japan and AEON MALL is one of its core companies. AEON MALL Wakayama is located in between Kitan-channel and Izumi mountains in Wakayama, with easy access from Nankai railway. The mall is one of core projects of developing new town in Fujito area. The theme of the landscape design is about the nature of Wakayama.

The original site is on the slope of the mountain and with the ocean below. The main challenge of the project is in reshaping the site with minimum change of geological formation, providing some excitement as a shopping mall at the same time. The main park of the mall, ‘Fujito Park’ has many terraced garden inspired by the terraced rice field in ‘Aragi-island’, Wakayama. Instead of rice cultivation, each garden is planned to be filled with fun activities, such as cherry blossom viewing terrace, climbing wall, picnic field, waving deck, plaza with dancing water jet etc. Some of the gardens also function as a playground and event spaces that correspond different size of events, some of the gardens function as audience seats. On the green lawn grass of the picnic field, we designed original outdoor FRP furniture that represents stumps, acorns and fallen leaves that are able to be found in the forest of Wakayama. Those furniture could be used as a resting space for shoppers and also as play equipment for kids. Creating these characteristic gardens resulted in providing vibrant landscape in the commercial complex, contributing various resting and recreation area for the neighborhood resident. We aimed to create the environment where people can rumbling the site so that time spend in the mall will be elongate.

Outer mall with restaurant area was designed inspired from ‘Kino-river’, the another representative nature element in Wakayama. Trees, flowers and a fountain run through the street of the mall curving like a river stream. This green stream unifies the restaurant zone and gives the customer more greenery. A fountain stands among the flowerbed makes good natural sound and shimmer of the lights to give the mall chic and calm feeling in the evening.