Exterior Aesthetic Mall of Africa’ s design is based on creating an exterior aesthetic that gives the entrances, parkades and retail stores their own architectural identities.
The exterior of the mall was developed in a contemporary design with a combination of structural glazing, modulated walls and an abundance of roof lights. The roof was treated as the fifth façade as it would, in future, be visible from many of the high level commercial office buildings surrounding the shopping centre. The roof initially had two green roofs( one on either side of the eastern and western portion of the roof) but, due to cost constraints, this was ultimately omitted and replaced with soft roofs.
At the centre of the mall, the interior opens up onto an external restaurant area and the‘ green lung’ of the Waterfall City development – a large park that extends towards the bottom of the mixed-use development.“ The Town Square, as it is known, ensures that the Mall of Africa is not an introverted design along its entire external perimeter extent,” explains Kanakakis. This outdoor park is a highlight, with a children’ s play area and an interactive musical water fountain.
There are 6,500 parking bays for customers with their own transport. Mall of Africa also offers two taxi lay-bye areas, valet parking, special dropoff facilities for buses and dedicated Uber pick-up and drop-off points – a first in the South African retail environment. It is also minutes away from the Gautrain Midrand Station.
Natural Light and a Unique Identity The mall’ s top level is accentuated by extensive double glazed rooflights, which are hung from an overhead structure steel support to allow the seamless extent of glazing to be visible from within the mall. These glazed rooflights are framed on either side of the mall by curved, flush-plastered ceiling bulkheads that enhance daylight entry.
The mall’ s central spine boasts an undulating ETFE of approximately 4,500m 2 which is supported by a suspended concrete ring beam and only four columns. The roof comprises inflated pillows on an undulating diagrid.“ It is an engineer’ s nightmare but an architect’ s dream,” quips Kanakakis.
The ETFE roof’ s undulating shape is reminiscent of many of the design inspiration lines in the Mall. The ETFE roof is an environmentally friendly product made of recycled tin and metal. The design development of the ETFE roof took close to a year to complete.
Extensive LED lighting design has been combined with this roof, providing lighting and animation to the key centralised area with three trillion colours.“ This roof was selected for its flexible design capability as
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