Serenade in the park

I was taking a look around the former capital of Poland on my morning run, but in my head I could still all the fanfare of the opening of the Serenada shopping centre – an event that had brought the real estate world to the city the previous day. Kraków is a popular tourist destination (and the evidence for this is obvious wherever you look), but it also suffers from heavy traffic. I could see this not only as I jogged through the Old Town, but also while in transit between the hotel and this new destination on Kraków’s retail map. One solution to the scourge of traffic jams (apart from asking local taxi drivers how to get around them) can be found on these pages in the interview entitled ‘If You Build It, They Will Come’, which is dominated by a discussion of a concept you may well never have heard of: the ‘copenhagenization’ of cities. What does this mean? Danish urban planner and mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen explains what it entails, which is the speeding up of a city’s traffic by, paradoxically, slowing it down. As I continued on my jog, I looked up at a billboard advertising Mayland RE’s newest mall emblazoned with the slogan MORE. And what might this mean? That Serenada will be more of a multifunctional centre than the competition, according to the developer. It will feature more services, entertainment and a superior gastronomical offer... and thus it fits in perfectly with the latest market trends, which we devote not only our cover story to (‘Not Quite a Piece of Cake’), but also many pages of the ‘Retail in Detail’ special supplement that comes with this issue. Meanwhile, back in Kraków, my mind’s eye then filled with the lines of cars – bearing people curious to see the new shopping centre, or those looking to pick up a bargain, or just to be there on that momentous day – snaking into Serenada’s car park...