Mall Rant: One more gilded cage

23 July 2014 - 02:00 By Jackie May
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SHOP TILL YOU DROP: An artist's impression of the Cradock Avenue entrance to the new Rosebank Mall
SHOP TILL YOU DROP: An artist's impression of the Cradock Avenue entrance to the new Rosebank Mall
Image: MDS ARCHITECTURE

There's a certain irony in the fact that the building at 21 Cradock Avenue is Rosebank's most beautiful building. Cradock Heights has modulated shapes breaking down the sense of scale, softening its access to the street.

"It's unlike any of the other buildings along here," said architect Sarah Calburn, pointing to the First National Bank and Absa Bank buildings on Cradock Avenue. These monolithic structures have little integration with the street.

But of Stephen le Roith's modernist building she said: "It's transparent and detailed, it has visual complexity, and it does not block sunlight from the street.

"This is how all Rosebank's developments should look."

The irony is that it is in this building that Hyprop Investments, responsible for adding a cynical 62000m² of shopping mall space to Johannesburg's northern suburbs, has its offices. Their R920-million redevelopment of the Rosebank Mall will be completed in September.

Interestingly as the US, the birthplace of the shopping mall, closes down many of its large centres, we're investing in more of them. In Gauteng, the Sunday Times reported two weeks ago that, in addition to the existing 7000000m² of mall, five malls are being built and more are being redeveloped.

Rick Caruso, founder and CEO of Caruso Affiliated, said at a recent National Retail Federation convention in the US that if malls want to survive in the future they must deliver experiences that customers cannot find on the internet.

The new-look Rosebank Mall is designed like an oval racetrack to ensure that you do not need to retrace your footsteps.

On Saturday I parked in a large new parking section on Bath Avenue, spent two hours in the mall and left feeling exhausted and bereft. I like fresh air and natural light. In the air-conditioned mall, the lights are too bright and the surfaces too hard.

Vivien Yun, a retail architect for Paragon Architects, said traditional malls often make the mistake of not utilising natural light. She said: "Once inside you have no idea what's going on outside."

Yun said this type of mall encourages shoppers to walk briskly and efficiently through. Because of the increasing popularity of online shopping, traditional retail outlets should offer lifestyle experiences, she said, with inside and outside spaces incorporating facilities such as outdoor play areas for children, and restaurants.

Hyprop Investments' regional executive, Nicole Greenstone, said the traditional mall has proved the most profitable in their experience.

"We've kept away from lifestyle experiences to avoid competing with Rosebank's street culture."

The circuit design of the mall, she said, gives retailers optimum exposure.

Calburn described the concept less flatteringly: "It's like taking a whole lot of rats and locking them into a space to see how much they can spend."

Calburn said architecture should allow social exchange - and Rosebank Mall doesn't.

"It's hyper-consumerism that causes people to stuff up like this. Malls like this are built to keep out the poor. The only real public spaces we have left in Joburg are traffic circles. This," she said, walking through the new mall, "is soul-destroying."

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