Press Releases
| Irene Village Mall scoops top design award
Irene Village Mall has scooped up one of the top prizes at the South African Council of Shopping Centres’ (SACSC) Spectrum Awards, which took place on 15 October at Emperors Palace. According to a SACSC spokesperson, the aim of the awards is to honour achievements in innovation, creativity, vision and excellence across all disciplines and sectors within the SA retail industry. “The Spectrum Awards honour the crème-de-la-crème in the retail industry and can thus be likened to the stature of that of the Hollywood’s Oscar Awards.” The Retail Design and Development Award, awarded to Irene Village Mall, recognises exceptional shopping centre design and economic successes of both new shopping centres and for the renovation or expansion of existing centres. This is a huge feather in the cap for the mall’s developers, Retail Africa and architectural firm, Boogertman and Partners, who took the traditional concept of a shopping centre and turned it on its head by taking the words of Enrico Penalosa, “Shopping Malls are the symbol of the failure of a city. Only failed cities have their best shops inside shopping malls”, to heart. The end result, a unique open village-like shopping centre that has become a landmark in Irene. It sports a number of core buildings loosely communicating with one another by means of public piazzas. The open-plan nature of the complex works to invite shoppers into the various stores, while the spaces between foster a sense of the market squares of yesteryear. Since the area had previously been home to a number of small dairy farms, the developers also decided to elevate and celebrate the humble cow by incorporating the animal in the centre’s design. A generous budget for public art was factored in at the outset of the mall and the three monumental public sculptures have become beacons in the centre. So too the 54m² jumping and leaping water fountain situated in the Piazza. The sculptures are named The Udder Side, Triksie and The Game. The Udder Side, which artist Angus Taylor conceptualised and produced in collaboration with fellow artists Francois Visser and Steven Delport, is an affectionate send-up of the dairy cow. It is a hugely oversized cow statue – with only it’s four legs and udder visible, it is a magnet for children. Staying with the cow theme is Triksie, a gigantic 6 by 4 by 3.5 metre herbaceous sculptural form of a cow that stands guard at the eastern entrance. Triksie is perennial and makes deliberate reference to the indigenous flora of the area. Apollonian – Dionysian is two squatting, cast-steel figures with a board game between them. Of the three, this sculpture is the most traditional in approach. The centre also received a Footprint Gold Award for the “Launch Creative” of its opening in October last year and a Footprint Bronze Award for the promotion held in May this year to celebrate the country-wide release of the much awaited movie Sex in the City. High fashion, bright lights, hot models, cabaret dancing and great giveaways formed part of the promotion. The Footprint Awards are presented in recognition of outstanding and highly effective retail marketing initiatives. |
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Some Cow Facts
- 1,200 construction workers built the shopping centre.
- The Tower and its water reservoir is a new landmark in Irene.
- The centre has 95 segmental arches in the brickwork.