Westville Mall Steps into the 21st Century
Situated in the heart of Westville, an established middle- to high-income residential area outside Durban, Westville Mall occupies a distinctive corner site in the CBD. A national retailer anchors the centre, and a 4,000sq m Virgin Active gym assures it of constant foot traffic. A demand for an updated look and additional retail space prompted a complete refurbishment which began in mid-2009 and is on the verge of completion.
The Brief
The gist of the client brief was to “Bring the mall into the twenty-first century,” says Acucap’s Beverley Wilson, who manages the centre. In addition to improving its aesthetic impact, the upgrade served a number of purposes: To facilitate tenant upgrades, to adjust to tenants’ new space requirements, to improve the tenant mix, to relocate centre management into the mall itself, and to improve its public facilities.
“The existing internal mall was dark, and one of the first requests by the client was to bring in more natural light,” recalls Architect Jaco Howard. If anything describes the revamped centre, ‘light’ is the word. Internally and externally, the architectural approach has been to open up the mall visually through the choice of materials and colour, the introduction of more natural light, and the visual enhancement of the building’s scale.
Long synonymous with a heavy, grey slate mansard roof, pink walls and gold signage, Westville Mall has shed its dated image for a look that finally does justice to its perennial popularity.
Projecting a New Image
In keeping with the dominant building material in the vicinity, face brick was chosen for the exterior façade, together with glass and steel to give it a modern, sophisticated appearance. The slate mansard roof was replaced with a light-coloured, 2-metre high beam from which a steel canopy was cantilevered to soften the eastern elevation. The addition of the canopy allowed for the widening of the walkways, and introduced some variation in the roof height (half of the walkway being recessed under the beam with a skimmed ceiling, and the other half being covered by the steel canopy).
The external shop fronts were raised to the full height of the ceiling to enhance the vertical scale, while glass fins were used as mullions to open up the shop fronts. The walkways are sunk slightly below the level of the parking, from which they are separated by planters and ramps/stairs, which help to soften the hard external finishes. The face brick faggot cladding of the concrete columns supporting the façade beam also help to give warmth to the look and feel of the building.
A raised, slightly zigzagged steel roof floats over each of the two entrances, supported by six concrete columns clad in the same faggot brick as elsewhere. A wind lobby is enclosed between the last four of these, but is exposed for natural ventilation at the top. Timber look-alike louvres protect the lobbies against horizontal rain, as well as echoing the horizontal motif introduced by the faggot cladding.
On the Northern façade, two large pergolas – in the same timber plastic as the louvres – demarcate a spacious seating area for the eateries alongside. A bold, burnt orange water feature and aloe-filled planter provide a focal point on the Northeastern corner, offsetting the mass of hard materials that surrounds it.
To make the public parking more user-friendly and relieve traffic congestion, most one-way flows were changed to a two-way flow and one entrance lane was changed to an exit. Additional lighting has also been introduced.
Bringing the Outside In
To bring natural light into the centre, the existing skylight over the centre court was removed and the aperture widened to 10x10m. Natural light floods in through its clear glazing, illuminating both the display area below and the two restaurants that spill into it. The open, louvre-shaded section at the top of the skylight allows for natural ventilation and smoke extraction, eliminating the need for mechanical smoke extraction. Four small skylights at other points in the mall reduce the amount of lighting required, while also assisting with ventilation.
The interior has the same open feel as the exterior, with full-height (3m) shop fronts, uninterrupted shop front glazing, light floors with reflective sections of polished porcelain, and frameless pivot shop front doors. Being only six metres wide, the mall had to be kept as light and uncluttered as possible. Cove lighting is accommodated in simple 2x2m recessed boxes, and the demising columns are deliberately understated, with a dark tile cut at an angle and bordered with an aluminium strip for some subtle emphasis against the prevailing light stone colour.
The use of timber in the mall furniture provides another subtle focal point which also helps to give warmth and texture to the look and feel of the mall. “The slats from the furniture reflect the very strong module from the external faggot brick columns which help in bringing some of the theme of the external to the internal,” explains Howard.
Finally, the existing public toilets were demolished and replaced with bigger public facilities, including a new baby changing facility. Like the mall, the public toilets are plain in design, with new slab vanities and ‘floating’ mirrors providing subtle points of emphasis. Down lighters in dropped ceiling bulkheads help to enhance the detailing and soften the overall effect.
Challenges
For the architects, the greatest challenge lay in the lack of existing services and structural drawings, which necessitated much on-site measuring. As a result, recalls Jaco Howard, “A lot of trial and error was the name of the game. But most of challenges were overcome by team work between the professionals and respect for each profession.”
From a centre management perspective, keeping the centre open or ‘live’ during the development was another considerable challenge. “Many creative walkways, bridges and tunnels were made to keep our customers safe,” Beverley Wilson recalls. “We also had to manage the parking carefully and retain as many bays as possible during the development.”
A resounding Success
The malls’ transformation was one of the most closely-watched and eagerly-awaited events in the community’s recent history. “While there is still some work in progress like the re-surfacing of the paid parking area, the remaining skylights, the gardens and the extension to the awing in front of [the restaurants], the overall consensus is that the mall looks great,” Wilson concludes. “We are very happy with the results.”
PROJECT TEAM
| Client | Acucap Investments (Pty) Ltd. |
ARCHITECT: |
RAI Cape |
QUANTITY SURVEYOR: |
MLC Quantity Surveyors |
CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: |
Arup (Pty) Ltd. |
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: |
RPP Consulting Engineers |
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: |
RWP Consulting Engineers |
MAIN CONTRACTOR: |
Giuricich Coastal Projects |
