The Commune Lifestyle Mall

Situated within the growing township of Vervocity, Bandar Indahputra, is a new concept retail mall aptly named The Commune. The eponymous retail centre seeks to serve its burgeoning township as well as its more established neighbouring precincts by redefining typical conventions of a retail centre. It does this by combining and providing attractive communal amenities, such as a multipurpose hall that caters for both sporting and social events, alongside retail units.

In exploring the expressive possibilties for the façade’s design language, the designers were approached to interpret what this new convention would entail in built form. The designers sought to call upon tactility and simplicity in their final design scheme.

The designer brought to life the unique concept for The Commune by creating a sinewy and undulating envelope for its exterior. The objective here was to go against the usual design language and grain of shopping malls with their harsh commercial lighting and rigid exteriors. In its place, the designers looked to developing and creating a more tactile and welcoming surface reading of The Commune.

To do so, the designers perceptively employed the use of Lysaght® Spandek Optima™ in their design scheme. Interrupted only by a complementary timber slat counterpart that runs along a solitary corner of the building, the edifice’s upper floors are deftly concealed by their selection of ribbed steel panelling. While the Spandek Optima™ is manufactured in single corrugated sheets, the product was instead skilfully manipulated and assembled on-site by the contractor following the designers’ specifications to create an impeccably continuous and singularly flowing curving surface. Further accentuating the wavy external cladding is the designers’ unconventional choice of colour: Sahara Iris (from the Bluescope COLORBOND® Petal Series). The colour’s tawny earthy blush works to further soften the building’s mass, blending in with not only the tmber slats that completes the façade’s evocative undulation but also, the use of bricks on the ground floor below.

These key design themes of simplicity and tactility are echoed in the interior of the building. The waves of the façade are signalled in the decorative ceiling panels that have been carefully placed throughout the mall. These appear to weave in and around the building’s bare concrete framework. Used in tandem with slender curves of tube-lighting, the Lysaght® EASYCLAD® panels were chosen for their durability and aesthetics. The timber-finish steel panels hang suspended from the otherwise exposed raw concrete ceiling, creating a warm contrasting accent against the unadorned concrete backdrop. The series of fluid, looping panels draw the eye upwards and onwards, both encouraging movement and visual interest throughout the retail centre while blurring the distinction between its indoor and outdoor spaces (such as its communal courtyard and play areas on the first floor).

In their design efforts for The Commune, the designers kept in mind the client’s vision: to create a vibrant and welcoming lifestyle and retail hub for its thriving community. The team has strived to achieve this in the final design scheme of The Commune’s warm and graceful façade and interiors through the inventive and creative use of select Lysaght® products.