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SPECIAL FEATURE Canal Walk Shopping Centre at Century City PROJECTS Client and Leasing Monex Development Company (Pty) Ltd Financiers Standard Bank Properties Project Managers SIP Project Managers (Pty) Ltd Architects Bentel Abramson & Partners (Pty) Ltd (shopping centre, offices & malls) Monex Design (entertainment centre) Quantity Surveyors McIntosh Latilla Carrier & Laing Canal Walk Shopping Consulting Engineers Structural & Civil Partnership de Villiers Centre, Century City Mechanical Pearce & Nair The largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere recently Electrical opened to enormous crowds. This regional shopping centre concept PMR Engineering Services aims to make a trip to a mall an all day experience. Rational Fire Design PMR Engineering Services Roads VKE Engineers Lead Transport Consultants Arup (Pty) Ltd artin Wragge, of Monex Shopping Centre, which led to Tygerpark, Transport Consultants Development Company, identified the Velodrome and the surrounding Jeffares & Green M the swampland, now known as business areas. Sandton Shopping Arcus Century City, as a suitable site for Centre, in the northern suburbs of greater Traffic development. The land had been set aside Johannesburg, and many others, have BKS (preliminary work) for low cost housing, but he visualised it had a similar effect on the proliferation of Town Planners as a premier node for offices. This area development in the surrounding areas and Planning Partners was envisaged as the first true office park on the environment. environment to be created in the Western Located off the N1 Freeway, centrally Landscape Architects Cape, which would incorporate a work situated between Durbanville and the CBD OVP environment encompassing all the of Cape Town, approximately seven Land Surveyors requirements a safe and pleasant office minutes from either side, with direct David Hellig Abrahamse Le Brun could achieve - security, easy access from access off the freeway, the site has the Earthworks a major freeway, access to shops and most accessible location in South Africa. Power Construction plenty of parking space. As a result of this The fact that this is a regional store Main Contractor vision, many corporate head offices have environment, rather than a neighbourhood Murray & Roberts Cape (Pty) Ltd now located their headquarters in the shopping centre, has resulted in the Photography Century City precinct. concentration of a whole shopping Historically, shopping centres have experience, instead of the rapid arrival, Geoff Grundlingh been the catalyst for huge building shopping and departure, that is the usual Brian Chitty (aerial) projects; they have spawned office target experience of the shopping centre Louise Farrow developments such as the Tygervalley devotee. 38 ARCHITECT & BUILDER November/December 2000 CANAL WALK EXTERNAL ARCHITECTURE responsible architects, they had done a Shopping centres in the present day great deal of research, both nationally and environment are usually vast boxes - inward internationally, into shopping centres. Bentel looking and unwieldy - which require a great Abramson & Partners found that centres deal of manipulation to maintain interest in designed in the ‘architecture of the day’ the mammoth space used. The architects may date, whereas complexes designed in have had to attribute a human scale to a style based on a major architectural everything they plan, in order to reduce the period, in the neo-classical style in this enormous expanse to manageable instance, may weather and require proportions, both visually and practically. refurbishment and repainting but not Canal Walk has been designed redesigning, restoration and redecorating. symmetrically, balancing the line shops and The major magnets in the country are used the anchor or ‘magnet’ tenants. Two 8 storey as the basic cornerstones and anchor office towers fix the axis of the centre which stores for the centre, taking into account has been designed in the form of a figure of the size and location of the stores. eight to reduce the scale of the complex. The neo-classical entrance arches can INTERNAL PLANNING assist in the understanding of the ‘inside As previously stated, the mall has been from the outside’ as well as aiding orientation. designed in a race track configuration of a figure of eight, with a double level CONSTRUCTION throughout and large openings between The client’s brief with regard to the design the upper and lower levels. This and construction of the complex required configuration gives an extremely compact a neo-classical approach, in keeping with footprint to the complex, despite the size the style already associated with other of the building, and the large openings developments in Century City. As emphasise the allowances made for Top Left: Typical entrance from car park into the shopping mall Centre: Lower level entrance with office gazebo above Top Right: Bridge detail - precast balustrading and piers consistently appear throughout the scheme. 40 ARCHITECT & BUILDER November/December 2000 CANAL WALK abundant natural light. On section it is possible to see the shops on the different levels and the signage enables one to achieve this aim without being cut off from the level on which one is walking. By using the anchor stores as magnets, the line shops are able to attract passing pedestrian traffic, as the distances between the magnets saw to it that all the line shops were relatively close to one of the key anchor stores. The flow generated by this layout ensures that all the tenants will be able to attract pedestrian trade. Magnet stores naturally demand key positions, Centre: Facade looking out onto Half Moon Bay Top: Two office nodes taken from the upper level parking deck CANAL WALK ARCHITECT & BUILDER November/December 2000 41 sight lines and access to parking areas, the other levels of the mall as well. The which demand was met by the architects. links on the lower level are heavily themed. Due to the size of the project it was decided One link is the African themed ‘Afri Bizarre’, to opt for two themes for the malls, namely, where Ndebele paintings, wire art, rock The Victorian Mall and The Classical Mall. and sandstone sculptures and artefacts The decision to opt for these two styles are available. This section was developed once again assists in breaking down the to encourage smaller tenants, who could size of the complex. start with a kiosk and grow into something The Classical Mall contains coffer larger. ceilings, brass and stainless steel handrails, marble floors with mosaics and water jet cut patterns and murals in raised and fielded panels. The theme of the murals is ‘Art of the World’ and incorporates art scenes of the Renaissance, picturesque and local works by artist Keith Alexander. The Victorian theme results in a much more colourful mall, utilising turn of the century railway structural steelwork, porcelain tiles with borders and cast steel benches. Several African artists’ works have been used in the panels in the bulkheads and banners above the malls. The directory boards are made of cast steel with rivets and distinctive roof shapes. To ensure equal strength for the two main malls, there are link malls, which have their own themes. At the east end of the mall is the children's mall, called the Puzzle Pad, which uses the Ratanga Junction characters, such as the snake, to continue the theme started there. Lego, lollipops and bright colours form the focal point of the link between the two malls. At the western end, ‘a high fashion’ link employing an art The eastern end has the Skywalk Mall, deco theme, utilises stainless steel, dark where the Star Wars concept has been timber and an abstract design employing given free rein, and high tech elements artists such as Tamara Delempicke. combine with Moroccan ‘souk’ At various node points the customer architecture. Floors in concrete combine can walk through large shops, with star astrological patterns, space maps and shopping on either side. This occurs on fossils with the Moroccan theme. Above: Various mall details. Decorative entrance to the Afri Bizarre link, Puzzle Pad and Ratanga Snake balustrade detail. Right: Art Deco balustrade in the Fashion node. Far Right: Highly articulated friezes and columns. Brass, glass and stainless steel balustrading in the classical mall. 42 ARCHITECT & BUILDER November/December 2000 CANAL WALK THE ENTERTAINMENT ZONE AND PROMOTIONS COURT The Entertainment Zone falls in the centre of a large atrium, flanked on either side by Nu-Metro cinema complexes and fast food outlets. It spills out onto the Half Moon Bay area of the canal. There are large video screens and booms where cameras can reflect what is happening in and around the centre. A company, Near Entertainment, has been developed in order to furnish the centre with an ongoing theatre concept. A choreographed series of shots of happenings around the centre will appear to the viewer as spontaneous occurrences. The decor consists of an eclectic mix of space ships in the West Piazza. A striking feature in the Entertainent Zone is the Marmoleum floor, which has been laid in and around the food hall. The amount of traffic in the area required a durable and hard wearing surface, which made the choice of Marmoleum ideal. Made up of various intricate designs, this floor is the largest Marmoleum aqua jet installation in the world. The Promotions Court has a Venetian Smalto Murano glass mosaic, which is the largest in the southern hemisphere (the area can also be flooded). The 600m2 court had to meet extremely high technical requirements as it will be used as a submersed water feature and a high traffic floor for promotional purposes. Produced in Italy under exclusive licence, the product is manufactured with 24 carat gold powder which gives the special highlight iridium mosaic a beautiful iridescent effect under light. The artwork and design was developed by Dennis Maas, of Monex Design, and the artistic realisation including design layout, was Left: The entertainment zone features the largest Marmoleum aqua jet installation in the world.

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