BUILDINGS - Camouflaging a Beast

The new Ikea Store at Matosinhos, Portugal, is a gigantic beast with 36600 square metres, being one of the biggest Ikea stores in the world.
This 36600 square meters of massive building are decomposed in 6.500 square meters of Showroom, 9300 sqare meters of Self Service Store, 7200 square meters of Service Areas, a 750 people restaurant and 2300 parking places.

It's scary...or not!

What really interests me in all this, it's that in the building entrance, Ikea managed to camouflage all this from it's customers! When you enter the building, you get you are in an shopping area, but not an 36600 square meters shopping area! It's even comfortable: with rolling slopes so you don't have to walk a lot; the restaurant area in a mezzanine; the wood ceiling; and 3 "floating" glass cubes decorated with different house scenarios made with Ikea's furniture.





The Numbers of The Beast (a.k.a. Curiosities):
- Ikea has 237 stores across 34 countries
- Ikea plans to open more 24 stores during 2007
- Ikea's catalogue is the largest publication in the world overcoming even the Bible, with a circulation of 175 millions just in 2007 catalogue
- During 2006 Ikea received 458 millions customers