Have you ever been to your favorite mall lately?
After more than two years of repeated restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are finally going back to the mall for shopping, leisure and spending time with family and friends.
Living the advocacy of the Sy Family, each SM mall ensures that shoppers and mall tenants breathe and live the green and eco-friendly way.
The former common boxy structure of SM malls has been made greener with the expansion has spanned to the improvement of its verandas, al frescos, corner spaces and garden parks.
SM City Cabanatuan works with the natural environment because of its green landscapes. The mall utilizes indoor and outdoor gardens with skylights surrounded with plants of local varieties and selection of trees and shrubs at the Roof Park and Garden Park. Gone are the days when the sight of plants climbing up building facades or creeping out of walls would be considered a sign of decrepitude. That view has not only changed but given way to greenery being a conscious inclusion in an architectural design.
SM City Pampanga and SM City Tarlac have developed areas inside the mall where customers can dine and relax in modern gazebos decorated with hanging plants, lights and colorful fabrics. With the rise in sustainability and ecological awareness, there’s a growing practice of blending the natural and the man-made environments and many malls setups are weaving this concept into their design thinking playing on man’s innate affinity with the natural environment.
SM Olongapo Central converted the event center into a green indoor sanctuary ornamented with green flamingos. At the dining deck, customers may enjoy the garden ambiance in an air conditioned area. And, that’s because plants go much beyond their aesthetic beauty to offer a multitude of benefits — physical, psychological, and economical. Plus, plants can transform the look and feel of a space, bend the acoustics and boost the energy efficiency of buildings.
SM City Clark has been garbed up like a botanical garden café in France. It has a high skeletal dome gazebo decorated with red flowers, and a fountain located at the center of the set up. Shoppers can enjoy the place as an extended dining and good coffee area inside the mall. SM believes that people benefit from lower stress and anxiety when going in an environment that has splashes of greenery. In fact, the mere sight of a plant is enough to improve our mood and feelings, especially in stressful situations.
SM green development has proven that plants lower energy costs and improve sales and operations by creating positive perceptions for businesses.
The inclusion of plants in architectural planning will only serve to make our buildings and urban spaces better equipped for the future, more aesthetically pleasing, and more relevant to our changing lifestyles.
