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Alex Mall, Johannesburg, SA
MDS Architecture has designed a new shopping
centre on a prominent site adjacent to the N3 in
Alexandra, which opened to the public at the end
of March 2017. Located just six kilometres from
the Sandton CBD, Alex Mall was developed by
McCormick Property Development in association
with Valumax.
The multi-level modern design includes three
attractive, colourful entrances on the upper level
and another two on the lower level of the long,
cascading building. The top floor of Alex Mall
features two soccer pitches in an Action Soccer
facility, which is expected to be a significant at-
traction. A food court is situated around the main
entrance, including a covered outdoor section,
while a large taxi rank is located on the lower
level under the slab, helping to ensure that the
development meets the growing needs of the
surrounding community.
Louis Pretorius, partner at MDS Architecture
explains that the mall design included a number
of bulkheads and required indirect and cove light-
ing. “At MDS Architecture, we always incorporate
natural light in our designs,” he says. “While the
final result is radiant lighting, one of the challenges
of indirect lighting is that one is only able to work
with light reflections, and therefore we could only
achieve a 50% output on the ground level. High
ceilings of up to 8 m also contributed to the light
loss factor.”
Barend van den Berg, project design engineer
at ING Plan, a multi-disciplinary consulting com-
pany, says that they worked closely with MDS
Architecture, who took them through the draw-
ings early on. “Based on the brief and the draw-
ings we received, we undertook simulations and
also provided comparisons between indirect and
direct lighting solutions. The simulation process
involved building the ceiling bulkheads for the
mall in Relux so the team could see exactly how
the lighting would look and the light levels that
would be obtained. We collaborated extensively
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LiD
AUG/SEP 2017