When Imraan Ho-Yee addresses the Design Indaba, if a draft of his speech is anything to go by, he is going to come to the following conclusion: ‘Architecture in South Africa rapidly adapts and responds to our societal change and complex issues of our young democracy. Although we are influenced by overseas trends and models we should not be dominated by them. With a strong South African spirit and pride we will, and have been, finding South African solutions often frequently debated as a South African style.”
Some may find this patriotism strange coming from an architect responsible for giving us the mall culture, seen by many as being as tastelessly American as the Big Mac. Ho-Yee is in part responsible for the outcome of major retail environments, notably the Design Quarter in Fourways and Willowbridge in Tygervalley.
Ho-Yee knows, of course, that he is working in a controversial arena. But, since the mall is here to stay, there is an obvious wisdom in finding a ‘South African style” that will move us forward from our vulgar taste for Tuscan and Balinese theme parks.
In the heat of the retail and building boom it is down to people like Ho-Yee to show us the way. And he is well positioned to do so. His South African parents left the country at the height of apartheid and he was born in London in 1968. He returned at age 14 and later studied architecture at the University of Cape Town and did some practical work in London. For seven years, he worked for Louis Karol, designer of the Sandton Convention Centre, among others. Today, Ho-Yee is a partner in Vivid Architects.
How do you cater for the retail boom? Is it purely a size thing?
Retailers and developers have realised that in at least the next year or two they are going to have significant growth. Developers are scrambling to find property to either develop or refurbish. My concern is that we need to develop responsibly. We need to look at unique models that are suitable for the South African context. The world is being colonised by the American mall — we should take the best that that offers and actually start looking for something that is a little more appropriate for us.
Is ‘responsibility” an environmental thing or a style thing?
Responsibility in all fields. Obviously one is referring to the effect on the environment, but more importantly how these retail centres should integrate with their surroundings, with their communities. I am referring to the idea of just having a large retail box in the middle of the suburbs that is purely a retail experience. There is a tendency now to look at mixed-use developments, for example where there is housing, office space, lifestyle. This has been done in the country but it is a little bit disparate. We are still working with the same suburban models. There is still no richness of an urban fabric or a layering of these different functions.
Does any of this take the disparities in the society into account?
Retailers have actually realised, particularly during the past 18 months, that it makes financial sense for them to move into the townships. The previously lower-income, disadvantaged communities were ignored as a retail power base. But developers have realised that there is a big market now. What you are starting to see is shopping malls moving to Soweto, they are moving into Athlone, Khayelitsha.
Are these consumers’ needs different to the needs of middle-class consumers?
There is quite serious brand allegiance in the black communities. We have just done a development in Athlone that is incredibly well-supported by the local community. You have got Langa township literally 500 metres away from the centre and a more affluent Indian community about a kilometre away. The facility brings the national retailers to the doorstep of the previously disadvantaged where in the past they would have had to travel great distance to access these brands.
Is there a local aesthetic emerging?
There should be a much more interesting and richer experience than just a box. So Willowbridge in Cape Town, for example, is open to the street. Instead of a mall with a painted sky ceiling, we have got the real thing. It is open to the sun and to rain but we do provide continuous cover in the form of colonnades and canopies for bad weather and shade. It is a global trend — the idea of the traditional high street has remained very appealing.
Generally, we’ve got to move away from this themed need to be Tuscan, this need to be classical or Mediterranean. South Africans have been pretty insecure and so we have developed an idea of looking to the West, looking to Europe. I think, as South Africans become more design conscious, which I think is happening with the proliferation of magazines and other design channels, there won’t be this need to go to these foreign styles. People will feel confident and secure enough that a South African solution and a South African style is equally useful.
On a personal level, do you sometimes feel like you are doing something negative? South Africa is often criticised for being a mall culture …
I have realised that there is quite a negative perception of shopping centres. Throughout the world they are sort of a blight on the landscape and that is what ideally I’d like to change, at least in the local context. But trade goes back to our earliest civilisation. There was the agora, the forum, the bazaars, the souks of the Middle East … Trade, shopping, congregation of people and socialising has been part of our existence forever. The idea of a mall shouldn’t be seen as an unnatural experience for people. I think that the way the American mega-mall model of the Sixties and Seventies has populated the world is a problem, and that is what we are trying to move away from. There are more richer and interesting environments we can create.