ST Letters : All maze but no real crowd-pullers

Mar 28, 2010

YOUR LETTERS

All maze but no real crowd-pullers

I refer to the report 'Orchard Central: Love it, hate it' (March 14) and doubt that I will 'grow to appreciate it in time'.

I belong to the category of visitor for whom the first time is also the last if my experience is not a positive one.

The layout at Orchard Central gives me the impression that I am entering a maze. The long escalators further confuse me as to the floor I am heading towards. The feeling that I need a global positioning system device to navigate frustrates any desire to stay on and explore.

The complex design is breaking new ground indeed - as a very shopper-unfriendly mall. The architects might have taken a wrong gamble in creating elongated, partitioned zones with narrow aisles and dead ends. The super narrow cubicles with very narrow aisles put shoppers off.

The 313@Somerset mall is also built on a long and narrow strip but its simple layout, with shops on both sides and reasonably wide aisles, is more user-friendly and easier to navigate.

Foodcourts are lunch and dinner crowd-pullers and the absence of a foodcourt in Orchard Central is not making it any more interesting.

With malls sprouting up in this city like green shoots after a summer shower, shoppers are seeing very similar product ranges - like fashion attire and accessories, electrical appliances, mobile phones and jewellery - on display.

Visitors are also unlikely to get very excited seeing the same brand-name shops repeating themselves at every mall.

Making matters worse, an awkward layout will only dissuade visitors from returning.

Paul Chan