On arrival we met near the shore where the ocean means the breakers. Here is where Mr Devenish begun to discuss the Board Walk which allows visitors to safely view the ocean. He began by explaining that the board walk was not always an attraction and was mainly put in place to prevent visitors from dangerously exploring the ocean by walking over the sharp rocks. A photo of the board walk can be seen below:
The board walk itself is made from indigenous trees collected from storms and natural occurrences and is about 4 years old. This fits in with the V&A's green agenda. This indigenous wood is also used as it ages well especially due to its location in a harsh environment right next to the ocean. Colin says that in times of large swell the ocean may even come over the breakers!
Next Colin took us though the centre and into the 'heart' of the shopping centre through its back doors. It was strange seeing a bit of the management operations side of the centre for the first time. Its incredible what goes into managing such a large successful space! In the picture below we can see the class walking through the back rooms to see the operational side of the centre.
The first room we went into was where they manage the electricity distribution to each of the tenants. In the picture below you can see one of the 2 transformers. How it works is the V&A buy power in bulk from the city, transfer the power into a usable voltage and current and distribute the power to the individual tenants where they receive a monthly electricity bill.
As a legal requirement, the transformers are check for maintenance once a year. If you can see in the above picture there is a chemical catalyst which changes colour when there is water present in the transformer. When there is water, the transformer needs to be checked and repaired. You can also see the Distribution Boards on the left hand side of the picture. These boards also have the legal requirement of a yearly maintenance check. We were then taken to see the generator room. The photo below shows 2 out of the total of 11 generators!
The generators were installed to combat Load Shedding and came at a price of around R27.7 million! The generators are used to provide power during times of Load Shedding but are not used to power the air conditioning. The block boxes below the generators are their fuel tanks and can store around 1000l of diesel which allows for around 8 hours of running time. Three generators provide power to around a third of the centre. The generator room has a fire escape as a safety precaution. They have also insulated the generators exhausts and allow for cool air to run into the room to keep the generators cool (just like any engine). Maintenance is down every week on the generators to ensure that they are in working order.
The image above is a section of the air-conditioning room. Inside this room is quite cool but the outside of the room is really hot. The AC contributes around 14% of the waterfronts monthly operations costs. On a month during the summer season they could spend as much as 2-3 million Rand on AC alone. This works out to around a total of R20 million a month operations costs for the centre alone! The V&A have a dedicated electrical team and strive towards a turnaround time of 24hrs in case any lights etc need to be replaced. The tenants themselves do not have complete control over their fixtures and the facilities management team put restrictions on what lighting they can use.
The above pictures show some of the waste management side of the centre. On the left is a recycling bin which is aimed at promoting the shoppers to recycle. Colin explained that initially they were hard to implement but when the management team explained the importance of recycling to the staff and tenants it began to make a difference! The photo on the right is the centres waste management centre. It is from here where waste is sorted and sent off to either the landfills or to a recycling plant. Colin explained how the waste is collected several times a day and how the staff who work with the waste are given injections to prevent them from getting any sorts of diseases.
To conclude the tour we were then taken into the security rooms located outside of the centre. Unfortunately we were told that photos were not allowed to be taken :/. The security room was like something out of a CSI movie and was filled with monitors, alarms and security guards. It was awesome to see how they have camera almost everywhere in the centre and can track a person from their time of arriving up until they leave the centre and get into their cars. The quality of the cameras is so good that you can zoom in to see a persons eye colour!
Overall it was a great experience to see the facilities management side of the Waterfront Shopping Centre. I can personally say that I will ever see the centre in quite the same way!
