Shopping centre architecture, from approved concept through to site.

Shopping Centres · Anchor Planning · Approvals · Construction Packages

Who carries your scheme from a signed-off concept to a set of drawings a contractor can build from? Algedra is a mall architectural design company that takes retail schemes the full distance, developing shopping centre architecture for developers in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and across the Gulf. Our architects and engineers work as one team through structure, envelope, authority submission and tender documentation. Send us your approved concept or your brief, and we will set out the route to site.

Drawings that survive the contractor's questions. Structural grid, slab depths, service routes and junction details are resolved in the package, so the scheme is priced accurately and built without a stream of design queries.

Authorities handled by the people who drew it. Municipality, Civil Defence and traffic authority submissions are prepared and carried through the review cycle by the same architects, with comments answered inside the design rather than patched over it.

Back-of-house planned as carefully as the front. Loading bays, waste routes, tenant service corridors, plant rooms and staff access are laid out early, because a centre that cannot be serviced cannot be operated.

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What We Design

Our architecture work covers retail buildings of every scale, developed to construction.

Regional and super-regional centres — Multi-level buildings with department store and hypermarket anchors, cinema and leisure floors, food courts and event atriums, engineered for high daily footfall.

Community and neighbourhood retail — Smaller centres serving a catchment of villas or towers, with convenience anchors, clinics, F&B terraces and surface parking.

Retail parks and outlet schemes — Open-format buildings with external shopfronts, shaded walkways, misted colonnades and covered links between blocks.

Structure and building envelope — Long-span roof structures over atriums, curtain-wall and cladding systems, expansion joints and waterproofing details, developed with our structural and MEP engineers.

Fire, escape and accessibility strategy — Compartmentation, travel distances, escape cores, smoke control and accessible routes, coordinated across the whole building.

Tenant coordination packages — Shell-and-core definitions, tenant fit-out guidelines and unit handover conditions issued for the leasing team.

Schemes still at concept stage begin with our mall concept design and 3D visualisation team. Banking halls inside a centre are designed by our bank architecture specialists, restaurant and food-hall units with our restaurant architects, and access roads and parking fields with our urban design team.

How We Work

Design development — The approved concept is taken into detailed plan and section, with the structural grid, cores and service zones fixed.

Engineering coordination — Structure, mechanical, electrical and plumbing are modelled against the architecture, and clashes are resolved before drawings are issued.

Authority submission — Municipality, Civil Defence and traffic packages are compiled, submitted and carried through comment and re-submission to approval.

Tender documentation — Full drawing sets, details, specifications and schedules are prepared for contractor pricing.

Site support — Our architects review shop drawings, inspect material samples and attend site through construction and handover.

Where We Build

Our architects deliver shopping centres across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and throughout Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain. Regional commissions extend to Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha, Kuwait City, Manama and Muscat, delivered from our Dubai and Istanbul studios.

Arrange a consultation with our architects to discuss your retail scheme.

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Dubai: +971 52 811 1106 | WhatsApp: +971 52 811 1106 | hello@algedra.ae