Westgate Stopping Centre by Sakshi Shailesh Gupta

Westgate Stopping Centre by Sakshi Shailesh Gupta reimagines shopping centre design as a place to pause, recover and reconnect with the city.

Instead of treating Oxford’s Westgate Shopping Centre as a purely commercial route, the project asks what retail space could become if atmosphere, public life and wellbeing were taken seriously.

Project overview

Sakshi completed her Master’s in Interior Architecture at Oxford Brookes University in 2024. She also received a Gold Medal in Interior Design from SNDT University, alongside a design background shaped by India and the UK.

Her Westgate Stopping Centre project takes the familiar shopping centre condition and reframes it through atmosphere, rest, social inclusion and human-centred urban experience.

What the project changes about retail space

• The shopping centre becomes a place to stop, not only a place to buy.
• Commercial circulation is softened with retreat, greenery and public interior space.
• The project uses atmosphere as a design tool, not just a visual finish.
• Visitors are invited to engage visually, mentally and physically with the environment.
• Retail is treated as part of city life rather than sealed-off consumption.

Why the theory matters

The project draws on Peter Zumthor’s thinking around atmosphere and Jan Gehl’s human-centred urban design. Those influences matter because the project is not only about making a shopping centre prettier. It is about how people feel, behave and spend time in the space.

Architecture Social view

Stephen’s recruiter view is that interior architecture portfolios are strongest when they show why the space works for people. Mood is useful, but the sequence, behaviour and decision-making need to be clear.

Next step

Explore more student projects, read the portfolio guide, or submit an interior architecture project.