Modoo, known as the Calatrava (in honor of the architect who designed it), is a shopping mall…read morelocated in Oviedo city center. It's only a couple of blocks away from the Llamallique station and a short walk from Oviedo station, a few buses stop nearby, so it's quite well located.
THE GOOD
It's my favorite mall of central Oviedo, not counting Intu/Parque del Principado. There's a Primark, H&M, Pull and Bear, Springfield, Shana, Benneton, El Corte Inglés (accesories, woman, men, and supermarket), Sephora and others.
There's a coffee shop in the first floor, and a Burger King, a restaurant and a pizza place on the second floor.
The shops are open until 10 pm and the restaurants on the second floor usually close between 11 pm and midnight. As usual in Oviedo, the shops don't open on Sundays except for 10 designated Sundays a year. The restaurants open daily, although if you're used to having lunch before 1 pm you might have to wait around for Burger King to open.
Wifi is free, but spotty at best. I recommend using H&M's (password is shopatHM if I'm not mistaken) or sitting in front of the uncomfortable plastic benches in front of El Corte Inglés and fill out a form with your name, email and postal code. There are two networks, named something like MODOO and Modoo-Free-Wifi but they rarely work. If you have the time to sit at Burger King it might take about 10 minutes for the network to connect.
THE BAD
This might not be criticism directly for Modoo, but I think it's weird that shops don't open on Sundays. I don't wanna hear about how 'workers need days off too' cause I'm sure there's a lot of unemployed people in Spain more than willing to work weekends and holidays, but I guess that wouldn't be cheaper for the employers.
The main problem with the Calatrava, and I mean the building itself, is that it has an enormous amount of leaks. You might find pots in the middle of the corridors collecting the water dripping from the ceiling. Mr. Calatrava didn't do such a great job, it seems. I also heard the spikes were supposed to move up and down, but the mechanism is broken.
As it happens a lot in Spain (perhaps in Europe as a whole too, I don't know), you are actually not allowed to take photographs inside the mall. I'm sure both yelpers and millenials have an issue with that.
There's a lot of empty shops. At least half of the mall itself is empty shops, and it's really depressing. They tried to add some fancy multicultural photographs to the empty Windows and showrooms, though.
They should really work on getting their wifi fixed.
THE UGLY
Even though the building is absolutely amazing (it looks very cool and you can see it from the top of Monte Naranco), it's a shame that it can look so desolated. This isn't happening just to Modoo, Los Prados has the same problem, but the building is so unique that it really makes it the poster boy for wasted opportunities.
I spent a lot of time in Modoo during my almost 3 month stay in Oviedo and it would be a shame to see more stores disappear without being replaced. It's a really beautiful building and I wish that they could work on making it more prominent. Otherwise, it just seems like a waste.
Modoo itself gets three stars, but the building design deserves at least 4.
