PROMDESIGN is a full-service design company specialized in retail and mixed use projects.  With a strong presence all over Europe and the Middle East, PROMDESIGN provides Master Planning, Architecture, Interior Design, Landscaping and Graphics. Underlying its approach to the urban form, the work of PROMDESIGN has often been identified with the pursuit of a ‘system of robustness’ (i.e. solidity, stability and durability) both in terms of representational meaning and technical research. This in turn, has been implemented and tested in vast construction sites and under challenging time and budget constraints.

Our process springs from a dynamic and focused design culture that fosters collaboration above all.  This cohesive and interactive structure enables us to deal with large and complex projects both in terms of design and programme. Ranging from Shopping centres, retail parks, theme parks, community centres to cinemas, restaurants, and mixed use projects, PROMDESIGN has accomplished projects in Algeria, Angola, Austria, Bulgaria, Dubai, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the USA and Vietnam, having established partnerships in many of these.

The work of PROMDESIGN has been widely published in several architectural magazines such as Archicrée, Arq./a, Arquitectura Ibérica, Architécti, Octogon and 2G and newspapers like Público, Expresso, etc.  Our work has received various international awards and has been exhibited and presented in conferences and lectures in Norway, Paris, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Sofia and Spain.

The global concept of shopping has become a dominant agent of urban life. It is today a platform of urbanism par excellence and structuring element of the contemporary city – in some cases even, reason of its existence. Far from stabilizing, this urban model is the subject of constant challenges and changes as a reflection of society itself. New approaches to retail space, technologies and marketing strategies, as well as their emerging hybridization with cultural and recreational environments, require innovation and constant flexibility in the design and planning of shopping centres.

For more than a 20 years we have been working closely with international consultants and retailers to explore and design strategies to make mall an experience of contemporary life a stimulating and astonishing activity.

Working hand-in-hand with international retailers, constantly exploring new trends in shopping and leisure worldwide is a stimulating and challenging experience.  In that regard, the track record of PROMDESIGN consistently demonstrates the ability to work successfully across borders and cultures, delivering comprehensive services at locations around the world.

As our projects consistently demonstrates, we have the ability to work successfully across borders and cultures, and consistently deliver comprehensive and exciting projects.  Since 1990, we have been designing retail-based projects, involving shopping centres, main street and mixed-use schemes, outlet centres, hypermarkets and superstores, retail parks and leisure destinations, sometimes in stand-alone/ big-box operations, other times in combinations of multi-purpose programmes.

We now boast an accomplished portfolio of more than 3,000,000 sq.-m of high-yield retail space, having amassed numerous design awards including ICSC, MIPIM, MAPIC and Real Estate Oscars, which granted us international recognition as a leading retail design firm.

PROMDESIGN provides a wide scope of design services, from preliminary site planning and due diligence research, to tenant coordination and construction management.

Shopping has never been more competitive.  New and repositioned centres, as well as resurging main streets, are mounting strong and sometimes lethal challenges to the aging stock of traditional centres.  Some older centres are hanging on by following the traditional formulas for success, but they will need new strategies —either co-opting the discount stores to compete on price, or providing heightened shopping experiences to compete on lifestyle.  The unfolding of this scenario poses great challenges.  The speed of change in this market, involving new approaches to retail space, retail technologies and marketing strategies, requires an increasingly flexible and innovative approach to the design and planning of what we call “the shopping experience”.

PROMDESIGN offers strategies and creates opportunities for the rebirth of the traditional shopping centres and their communities as well as for the implementation of new retail areas, combining worldly experience with knowledge of the latest developments in retail, leisure and entertainment design, creating truly stimulating and rewarding environments.

5-steps phased approach
Our team feels that the development of retail projects in general, and shopping centres in particular, must bring together 3 different perspectives; namely the Developer, the Retailer and the Architect, in order to achieve investment feasibility, commercial sustainability and design quality.

Our work strategy develops in 5 phases:

• Phase 1
  Investment decision
  Fulfil with the urban parameters
  Study of volumes and urban impact
  Commercial layout options
  Study of areas, ratios and commercial efficiency
  Inputs towards the business plan formatting
  Preliminary budget estimate

• Phase 2
  Conceptual development
  Verification of the fulfilment of ratios
  Development of the commercial layout
  Follow up of the pre-letting
  Presentation of the concept to internal and external decision makers
  Basic quantity survey

• Phase 3
  Project licensing
  Follow up of the licensing authorities
  General co-ordination of the projects
  Assistance to the commercialization of the anchor stores
  Rigorous quantity survey

• Phase 4
  Full construction documents package
  Alternate construction techniques investigation
  Coordination with M&E
  Follow up of the letting
  Fine tuned quantity survey and specifications
  Follow up to the contractors’ negotiations

• Phase 5
  Site surveying
  Systematic adaptation to letting during construction
  General co-ordination of the projects with the tenants
  Quantity surveying of alternative solutions
  Support to negotiation of additional construction jobs
  Implementation of landscaping, graphic design and signage
  Grand opening preparation.

Paulo Perloiro MArch, Partner
pgp@promdesign.studio
M Portugal  +351 932 271 073
M Middle East  +974 3392 0150

Born in Lisbon (1964), Paulo Perloiro received a M.Arch from the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon, in 1988.  He served as software engineer of Time-Sharing Computing Services, Inc., and as construction manager and building inspector for the New University of Lisbon.  Between 1987 and 1990, Paulo Perloiro worked in the property division of Sonae Sierra, involved in the search of investment opportunities and assisting the management team in setting up major acquisitions and feasibility projects.

As an expert in retail design, he has travelled extensively across the world, advising major clients and investors in the development of retail concept.  He has participated as a speaker in several Retail and Architectural conferences, namely in the 3rd Retail-Platform in Lisbon, AIT/Zumtobel in 2007; in the Scandinavian Project Forum in Drammen (Oslo), Norway, 9th-10th March 2011 for Steen & Strøm; at ICSC Bulgarian Retail Real Estate Conference 2011, 10th May 10, in Sofia, Bulgaria. He also hosted a round table at ICSC European Conference and SIEC11, June 2011, in Paris, France.

At the present, Paulo Perloiro splits his time between the Lisbon office and the Doha office, where he coordinates the overall Concept and Design Coordination of the retail and some mixed use projects.

Paulo Perloiro has a profound commitment and is really focused on retail design and has been involved in numerous projects.  In this capacity, he has truly become a leading authority in the field.

Renderings
© 4+Arquitectos
shared with PROMDESIGN

Photography
© Fernando Guerra/ FG+SG