received the same finish , the Courts have been treated differently to help orientate shoppers . Each court has a different theme finished in a nonstylised way ,” he says .
The Woolworths Court is known as the Rock Court , inspired by the country ’ s heritage . Colours are earthy and the demising piers and floors patterns are jagged . The Fountain Court has nuances of dunes and organic patterns , the Edgars Court or the Ocean has nuances of the country ’ s coastline and , of course , the Protea Court symbolises South Africa ’ s national floral symbol .
Completing this major refurbishment with minimal disruption to shoppers and tenants alike was a priority . “ This meant that much of the work was done at night and areas that were being worked on were either covered or carpeted during the day ,” says Henry , underscoring the importance of a good professional team and ongoing coordination with the construction team on site , as well as the centre management and tenants .
Energy Savings and Environmental Awareness At the time when the new extension was first proposed , problems with electricity provider , Eskom , were making news headlines and rolling blackouts were affecting many parts of South Africa . “ Our client was concerned about obtaining the extra power needed for the extension ,” explains Kanakakis . “ We rationalised the centre ’ s existing power supply to provide a power-saving criterion when implemented that would not require any additional power from Eskom to construct the additional 30,000m 2 of GLA ,” she says .
This achievement is made even more impressive by the fact that the new extension increases the size of the centre ’ s retail offering by almost 25 %. Energy saving criteria have been introduced in the design to the malls and to both new and existing tenants through the new design criteria set out for tenant installations . The mall lighting design and tenants ’ shop designs were obliged to incorporate environmentally sustainable lighting and materials .
The building management system allows for energy saving in many different areas . Lights around the perimeters of the parking garages only switch on at night , because the abundance of natural light during the day means that they are not required . Likewise , the air-conditioning units have special drives which allow them to power down if necessary , regulating the air-supply according to the outside temperature . The motors in the centre ’ s lifts have been replaced with smaller and more efficient units which use less electricity .
350 Sandton City