European developer Unibail-Rodamco has created life-size mock-ups of its Mall of the Netherlands project near The Hague to detect design errors before the shopping centre is built. Reporter Gabrielle Klaver went to the site in Leidschendam to take a look.
Should we pick the white or grey hue for the marble floor tiles, should the timber cladding for the central dome be a natural wood colour or white-washed, and how can the fire extinguishers be concealed more effectively?
All these decisions can be made far more easily when tested in real life. Reason why Unibail-Rodamco has had life-size models created of parts of the Mall of the Netherlands, its shopping centre project near The Hague. Work on the 83,500 m2 mall has already started and the entire project, which involves a redevelopment of an existing shopping centre, is scheduled for completion in October 2019.
The test models are standard for major projects carried out by Unibail-Rodamco, and Mall of the Netherlands, in which the European shopping centre giant plans to invest more than €500 mln, is no exception. Teun Koek, who heads the project team, was particularly interested in the ceiling elements of the mall. ‘We have experience with most design elements in other Unibail-Rodamco centres. But in this mall we want to give more attention to the ceiling than is normal for shopping centres.’ The company has opted for a natural wood colour for the timber dome. The other ceiling element, which enables daylight to filter through, is ingenious but not conspicuous enough so will have to be amended, says Koek.
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Technical aspects
Besides aesthetic factors, the mock-ups also provide the opportunity to test technical aspects and assembly. In the case of Mall of the Netherlands, this applies in particular to the façade designed by architect Roberto Meyer. The white, undulating awning will be made of concrete, an audacious choice of material.
Concrete specialist MBX, which also produced elements for Arnhem central station and a London Underground station, will use an innovative procedure whereby the concrete is reinforced with glass fibre so that the entire façade is only four centimetres thick. Each part of the façade will be manufactured using a separate mould, making the entire structure much lighter than standard concrete.
Unibail-Rodamco’s management board, which visited the test locations and will take final decisions on the designs, was positive about the façade but less enamoured of the walls of the parking garage, which have to become more luminous and look more like those of Mall of Scandinavia in Stockholm, which opened in 2015.
The mock-ups also offer potential tenants an idea of the look and feel of the mall. ‘We’ve received a lot of interest,’ says Koek. For fresh produce tenants, a separate test model of the mall section set to accommodate them has been created in Leidschendam which has a more industrial look and feel.
