Sanctuary Mall is ensconced in the heart of the upcoming Eco Sanctuary City, an integrated development zone of the 308-acre Eco Sanctuary Township and saw a soft opening in December 2018.The mall was designed to serve the nascent and growing township.Envisaged as an appealing and holistic venue based on a strip mall concept, it generates interest and offers the convenience of meeting the daily essentials and functional needs of the community.
Surrounded by over 150 lifestyle shops and offices, this community-centric mall houses 50 retailers and will have food and beverage venues as the main ground floor attraction, upper levels are slated for convenience services while the remainder will focus on lifestyle and homegrown brands and products.
A modern interpretation of retro suburban strip malls originating from California in the 1920s, Sanctuary Mall rejuvenates the consumer experience through a curated mix of food, retail, and services.Departing from the large footprint stores, this three-storey mall has a gross floor area of approximately 12,000 sqm with a net letable area of 10,000 sqm with a wide variety but smaller-scale stores to complement their online stores.
To improve the consumer experience, the design utilises an outstanding interplay of materials, art installations and landscaping.A deep façade sporting aluminium-lined louvres wraps the side elevation and screen the mechanical services behind, providing a stylish touch.
Covid-19 has served to accelerate some of the changes that were already underway and reaffirmed some of the new innovative ways to reinvent the future of retail experience during the design stage of this mall.
The mall’s centrepiece is an extensive angular roof.Supported by high steel columns, its passive design provides shade to the semi-outdoor roof garden, as well as the patio on the northern facade of the mall.In the effort to create community living room spaces while accommodating social distancing, these enlarged outdoor spaces along with a large urban tree house were built to both keep people safe and allow people to meet and socialise.
With a majority of the ground floor set aside for gastronomy, lifestyle retail and flexible spaces will be found on the second floor, while furniture, household and speciality stores will occupy the third level.The layout offers innovative opportunities for independent and start-up businesses for short-term pop-ups, quick-serve kiosks, or exhibitions, with a steady stream of shoppers from the vicinity.This smaller and flexible store concept has been chosen to create a memorable physical brand experience that complements their digital/online shopping model.
In response to the changing consumer habits due to the pandemic, the street-level car park with curb side pickup, delivery and drive-thru emerged as solutions for the ‘fast-in, fast-out’ shopping experience with emphasis on safe passage and convenience.This has provided an opportunity to accommodate both purpose-minded shoppers for short visits and experience-orientated shoppers to indulge in-store exploration.
A centralised pedestrian walkway echoes the strip mall concept, defining the crowd traffic flow for an easy and frictionless shopping experience.The central atrium encourages connectivity through the different floors and allows customers to get an overview of the mall’s offerings to facilitate quick purchases when necessary.
The northern end of the mall features a two-storey glass façade on the upper levels, allowing natural daylighting into the mall, with a linear skylight by the southern tip giving the mall a less enclosed experience.
