OZ Mall

OZ Mall designed by Dyer, completed in 2013 delivers 220K sq m of retail and leisure space and is occupied a mix of by local, national and international retail and leisure brands.
The OZ Mall shopping centre is the flagship project of a multi-million pound programme of combined retail and leisure centres. It is based on a highly flexible prototype designed specifically for a major international developer.

The OZ Mall prototype reflects the dynamism of the family-orientated ‘OZ’ brand. It takes an integrated approach to the building, branding, signage and lighting strategies to create a memorable sequence of spaces. It provides the design framework for coherent, high quality facilities that are simple to get around, fun to visit, easily recognised yet very unique. It is highly adaptable to changing retail trends. The OZ Mall design concept defines an iconic ‘wing’ elevation floating over an arrow-shaped base. The feature-lit aluminium cladding provides a highly durable skin for the building suited to the local climate.

In plan, two wings of retail are laid out either side of a central leisure axis and dramatic sunlit atrium. The co-ordinated approach to layout and circulation ensures optimum customer throughput and exposure. There are seven anchor stores, one hypermarket, 21 MSUs and a further 201 retail units of varying size. Leisure concessions include a multi-plex cinema, 24 food outlets, kids play centre and games zone

The client’s aim was to deliver a center that responded to needs of the family from when they enter the car park to when they leave – a total day experience of shopping and fun. To achieve this excellent food offer was required together with a good mixture of leisure activities to suit all ages. Every square meter of free space it utilized to create a variety of leisure and retail experiences, space has been designed to be flexible as possible so that it can be adapted to deliver a variety of activities and functions.

An Oz special event – the public realm at the front of the shopping centre has been designed to provide a venue for Oz special events – for example a lottery to give five brand new ‚A’ Class Mercedes cars away as prizes to Oz customers who purchased tickets in the previous month.

Oz One Ice Skating Rink – A 1,000 sq m ice skating rink has been located centrally on the ground level of the shopping mall and acts as a ‘HUB’ creating catalyst for other entertainment activities as well as dynamic visual and sound interest for shoppers as well as those using the food court.

The relationship of the ice pad to the shopping mall was given careful consideration by Dyer during the design phase of the project. The ice pad has been set 1200 mm below the finished level of the shopping mall floor. A structural glazed balustrade provides the edge protection around the ice void. This detail allows the maximum visibility of the full ice area with the least amount of disruption on the retailers. The ice skate hire and changing facility and garage for the Zamboni scraping machine are also located at the lower level. The ice rink is predominantly used for leisure skating and also supports a skate school. There are also ice discos – orchestrated from a dedicated DJ booth, Christmas markets, fashion shows etc.