Silverburn, with more than one million square feet of retail space, is expected to become the country's leading out-of-town shopping destination.

Built on the site of the old Pollok Centre on the outskirts of Glasgow, the huge £350 million development features winding crescents, lanes and winter gardens, attempting to create the civic atmosphere of a village. Fine dining replaces the food court and each store has been given a distinctive design to counter the conventional monotony of a mall, changing through each "transitional zone".

Richard Low, director of Retail Property Holdings (RPH), has spent the past 12 years working on Silverburn. As he walked the Sunday Herald through the complex, he explained why his company set out to replace the Pollok arcade. "It was an ageing 1970s shopping centre that couldn't really be tarted up, " he said.

"Something drastic had to happen to improve shopping in the area.

"We wanted to create the very best, something unique that really raises the bar for retail development. It's an oldfashioned high street with the benefit of a masterplan. The ethos was to give shops their own identity, rather than just one long block. We want it to be a journey from one end to the other, and to be a place where people want to spend time."

The developers have been keen to assure the residents of Pollok that it will benefit the community beyond upmarket shopping opportunities. RPH set up a partnership with the South West Regeneration Agency, ensuring 50-per cent of all retail staff are from the area, at least 50-per cent of whom were previously unemployed, with the majority of building jobs given to local construction workers.

"We haven't forgotten there was an existing town centre here in Pollok, " said Low. "We've engaged with the community here at every stage in the development." Research for the mammoth project involved discussion sessions with target shoppers who professed a desire for more open spaces in which to socialise.

The need to create novel features also resulted in spa treaments, an indoor burn, public art and sculpture, as well as eco-friendly architecture.

Built using the latest in environmental design, "ventilation pods" control solar heat, sunlight and cooling using passive techniques. Wind turbines are to be adopted by Marks & Spencer's flagship eco-store, where rainwater is stored and used to flush the toilets.

Leigh Sparks, professor of Retail Studies at Stirling University, said: "The next generation of shopping centres is having to work hard to establish its green credentials and is thinking much more cleverly about idiosyncratic ways of doing things.

"Retailers are playing with their shop fronts and layouts, and Silverburn seems to be taking this idea of transitional zones even further."

Greta Birtwistle, head of marketing, retail and fashion at Caledonian Business School, said online competition has increased the stakes, forcing developers to create an aspirational experience worth travelling many miles to enjoy. "If retailers are competing with the internet, they need to provide an experience where shoppers like to go and try things on, and can eat in nice, atmospheric, comfortable surroundings, " she said.

Experts believe commerce in smaller town centres and suburban arcades across the central belt might suffer from the pull of Silverburn, where 1.6 million people live in a 30-minute radius.

But Fiona Moriarty, director of Scottish Retail Consortium, said: "The city centre is a premier shopping centre, and another out-of-town development is not going to change that. They are complementary rather than being in conflict."

Most of Silverburn's shops open on Thursday, with a second phase expected to be completed by February 2008.