Foreword: Shopping Mall & Retail Design

In South Africa a growing consumer class and urbanisation has led to a demand for new shopping malls throughout the country.

The South African Council of Shopping Centres issued a report last year that noted that South Africa had the sixth most shopping centres in the world. Furthermore, a study conducted by MSCI also noted that as of July 2017, the SA retail development pipeline measured 1.9 million square metres across 68 centres - the bulk of which is planned for completion in this year.

And, of course, new malls mean that existing malls must constantly re-invent themselves to remain relevant and popular. This leads to renovation, refurbishment and redesign.

Mall of Africa, Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa

MDS Architecture

Shops and restaurants within the malls also need to refresh their look on a regular basis in order to remain relevant and to attract foot traffic, which is where the growing profession of retail design comes in.

All of this calls for a wide variety of building products and services, which is the reason for the fourth publication in our Powered by Specifile series, where we concentrate on specific sectors of the architectural and construction industries. And don’t forget that you can find detailed product brochures on www.specifile.co.za.

Will shopping malls change in years to come? I have no doubt they will. As e-commerce grows, shopping malls will need to adapt and retail stores will need to transform in order to align with online shopping. Whichever way it works, shopping malls and stores are going to be working harder to get feet walking through them making superb design, excellent products and awesome experiences more important in years to come. It will be interesting to see how this directory changes in years to come.