Wall Tiles in Cresta Mall | Decorative Ceiling Tiles

Decorative Ceiling Tiles provided Creta Mall with custom printed aluminum wall tiles to create nature-inspired murals as part of a $30 million dollar refurbishment and expansion program.

History

Cresta Shopping Centre is a premier mall outside Johannesburg. Built in 1977, it is one of the largest shopping centers in the Southern Hemisphere. It has experienced many renovations over the years, the last dating back to 1993. Since then, more than half a billion people have made visited the mall, making an upgrade necessary to the property.

Refurbishment

The center refreshed its design to showcase the nostalgia of the building while simultaneously appealing to a younger market. A design had already been approved when the designers and architects met Dean Armstrong from Ergosystems, a South African ATI distributor. Armstrong offered the team a new design concept using nature-inspired images. The scheme was switched overnight from their original concept to one featuring ATI’s Fusion program, which marries stock or custom art with multiple substrate choices, creating beautiful, durable architectural surfaces.

Design Challenges

The designers wanted a themed concept that showcased novel products and images that would attract new stores and tenants. The material used for the tiles had to be durable and strong enough to hold up to a high-traffic retail environment that hosts nearly 18 million shoppers annually. At the time this was a product that hadn't been seen before, something new and exciting.

Solution

Decorative Ceiling Tiles provided the materials to create 10 different Fusion murals, using a sublimation process to actually embed images into the substrate. Each mural showcases a different over-sized, nature-inspired design from hydrangeas and daisies to black-and-white butterflies. The natural elements are fun and beautiful, but also evoke a calm and relaxed feeling in an otherwise hectic environment.

To create the look and feel desired, the images were fused into white gloss aluminum. Not only did the substrate provide the necessary durability and impact resistance needed, but the glossy properties of the aluminum tiles allowed the images to pop off the walls. Another advantage of the substrate was its modular capabilities, which will make future updates a breeze and create less waste. To update the murals, the old panels can be un-clipped and new ones simply clipped on in their place.