The Concept
The proposed development is situated in a highly visible site located along Airport North Road which is a major corridor connecting Mombasa road to the rest of Embakasi area. The Southfield mall is at the center of the industrial and residential hub and benefits from a wide catchment area including the extent of the high density Embakasi estate, Mombasa Road from the Nairobi CBD and the traffic from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and beyond.

In response to the location of the site in Nairobi city, it was necessary to provide a potential usage both in terms of urban entity and returns. The 4-storey shopping mall is designed to react and satisfy a demand for high quality of retail space in this area. The entire complex is defined by an integration of various retail spaces, restaurants, banks, daycare centre and conference facilities. The third floor exclusively hosts a 25,000 sqft conferencing and exhibition space which will cater for various functions for the neighboring residential and industrial Embakasi area. The shopping mall is located on a 3 acre parcel of land which is deep in nature with its shorter side facing the highway. It comprises of an overall built up area of 360,000 sqft and a lettable area of 165,000 sqft and 400 car parks distributed on the basement, ground and second floor.

The multi-functional building comprises a basement floor which houses 280 car parks, back of house services and lettable storage areas for shops above. This will be one of the first malls to incorporate storage spaces for individual shops in the basement. The basement has a central oval water feature which opens to all the retail floors above and forms the base of the atrium which gets natural light from the central atrium glass roof located on the second floor. The water feature also acts as a launch pad for a travellator which connects the shoppers from the basement floor to the ground floor at an angle over the water feature. In addition to the travellator the basement also has the main lift lobby and public staircase which connects all the way to the 3rd floor.

The ground floor consists of retail space located around the circular atrium space with natural light beaming in from the glass skylight above. The main entrance to the ground floor is from a drop off facing the main highway. The main entrance comprises a double height lobby space with the seating area for the coffee shop on the ground floor and the other two eateries overlooking into the same at the first floor. The entrance celebrates an elevated volume enhancing optimum light into the retail spaces. The central atrium is crowned with a glass roof articulating light to various levels and to the water feature at the basement. The shape of the building and the materiality of their facades are juxtaposed to the surrounding low rise buildings to form an anchored and vibrant environment.

In essence the key concept behind the design is to achieve and develop the most potential and viable use of the proposed development and at the same time standout from its neighborhood.


Unique Design Aspects
The entire design compromises a minimalistic language so as give prominence to the shops and their respective displays while at the same time ensuring sufficient aesthetic rhythm in the overall public movement areas. The shop fronts have been uniquely designed to form art frameworks for the shop displays. The central atrium is ovular in shape with the basement, ground and first floor facing into a vast water feature with the travelator and escalators crossing on top of it. The four main eateries have been carefully located to face the main double height entrance while at the same time having the view of the landing airplanes at the airport located nearby.

Finally, Southfield Mall offers a wide range of shop sizes ranging from 200 sqft to 6000 sqft to provide sufficient options in terms of size and usage.