18 / 36
to ensure that none of the light sources could be
seen and to introduce natural light in dark spots.
The combination of natural and accent lighting gave
us a great final result.”
The lighting inside Alex Mall was such that the
architects did not need to create special lighting for
the Living Museum housed within the mall, notes
Pretorius. “We installed security lighting (up to 50
lux) around the perimeter of the mall and uniform
lighting in the parking areas. The soccer fields on
the roof required a uniform spread of light and we
needed to ensure that there were no dark spots
on the field. Genlux undertook simulations and we
used 400W high pressure stadium lights on masts
to achieve uniform illumination.” Although lighting
at the lift and escalators landings has to comply
with Occupational Health & Safety Standards, the
supplier Schindler has its own standards for easier
maintenance; for this reason, these areas required
additional lighting.
Pretorius explains that although budget con-
straints are often a pressure point in terms of
lighting solutions; owing to the collaborative ap-
proach on Alex Mall, they were able to get the
right outcome within the budget available. “By
choosing an indirect lighting scheme, the budget
for the mall lighting was significantly lower,” says
van den Berg.
“We worked with the Quantity surveyors from
Quanticost, architects from MDS and the client
project manager to come up with a design that
was more aligned with the budget. To avoid dark
patches, MDS Architecture did a great job of intro-
ducing natural light in an attractive way to areas of
the mall where the light levels were low. The QS
also did a good job of adjusting costs to make the
required changes in the budget possible. The main
contractor, Mike Buyskes Construction andWalter
Staal, contributed with the design, installation
and successful implementation of the skylights
installed in the mall area.”
The final result illustrates that by working as a co-
hesive team from the start, it is possible to produce
a successful result – on time and within budget.
LiD
AUG/SEP
2017
16