The trend of using eco-friendly and inexpensive shipping containers as business hubs is growing. Now they’re being used to create a contemporary shopping centre in Melville.

Property management company Citiq, known for converting the Newtown grain silos into student accommodation, has embarked on a journey that will change the face of shopping malls. Its new project, called 27Boxes, will be located in Melville, a Joburg suburb known for its arty and vibrant atmosphere.

27Boxes will be 2 400sqm of contemporary retail space built from 63 shipping containers and will house up to 78 shops.

Part of the excitement of 27Boxes is the affordable rentals. At just R2 000 a month, small business owners and boutique businesses will no longer feel excluded from a “mall” experience.

“Affordable shop space geared towards the needs of small entrepreneurs, artists, creative people and food lovers, 27Boxes will provide an ideal environment to attract shoppers and encourage visitors to linger and enjoy what’s on offer from the eclectic mix of tenants,” says Citiq CEO Paul Lapham.

This innovative space will house an art gallery and studios, a couturier, a bakery, a micro-brewery, a furniture manufacturer, a restaurant and a coffee shop, as well as a boutique garden centre, a kiddies’ playground, walkways and an amphitheatre. There will be permanent shops but management will encourage pop-up shops too. This means the vibe and offering of the centre will forever be changing, making for a unique shopping experience. Plus there will be parking – 200 bays to be precise.

As Lapham says, international cities have long used shipping containers as pop-up malls and temporary exhibition stands. Box Park in London and a retail park in Christchurch, New Zealand are just two examples. The 27Boxes shopping experience promises to spearhead the revival of Melville as an interesting and preferred destination for shoppers.

27Boxes is scheduled to open in April 2015.

For more information, visit 27boxes.co.za

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Selfies are so last year! Our friends at MB Life asked five local personalities to share their shelfies – pictorial peeks at their bookshelves.

Milisuthando Bongela, blogger

I don’t have as impressive a bookshelf as I would like, but it’s growing slowly and I’ve read all the books on it. My bookshelf came with my place; it’s embedded in the wall. My favourite place to read is in bed, when I wake up or just before I go to sleep. Three of my favourite books on my shelf are Frontiers: The Epic Creation of South Africa and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People by Noel Mostert – I call it the book that woke me up, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – the book that encouraged me to tell stories, and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran – the book I live by.

Zubz, musician and writer

My bookshelf is one of my favourite pieces of furniture in my house. It was custom-made to fit my wall and is a distressed-looking dusty green. It’s a prominent piece because my girlfriend and I are writers, and books occupy a big part of our lives. My favourite place to read is in my bedroom or curled up on the couch. I recently bought two Chinua Achebe books that I felt were essential to any African literature collection. I’m also big on Malcolm Gladwell’s books for inspiration. There’s also a lot of Toni Morrison on our bookshelf because my girlfriend is a huge fan and swears I’m missing out by not having read her books.

Angie Batis, co-owner of Wolves Café in Jozi, with her husband Shane Durrant, from Desmond and the Tutus

Shane and I designed our bookshelf and had a carpenter make it up for us. We wanted something with loads of big compartments because I love collecting things and wanted lots of nice little spaces to display them. My favourite place to read is on the porch of Shane’s mom’s holiday cottage in Riet River in the Eastern Cape. It’s so quiet and there are day beds so when it rains you get a blanket and some sweet tea and then it’s just you, your book and the sea in the background. It’s amazing. Paul Auster was one of the first authors I fell in love with. The first book of his I read was The New York Trilogy and his style of story-telling had me hooked from day one. He’s definitely worth checking out.

Nzinga Qunta, founder of JUCYAfrica.com and newscaster on ANN7

My bookshelf is from my varsity days – I just wandered into a shop and bought the first one I saw. I should probably get a new one since my place is heaving with books. I like to read on the couch or in bed; somewhere quiet where I can disappear into the places the book takes me. One of my favourite books is Eight Days in September by Frank Chikane. It was fascinating to read about South Africa’s biggest political story by a person who was involved. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is another favourite – she’s incredible at capturing emotion and weaving a beautiful story. Roots by Alex Haley taught me about the slave trade in a manner that portrayed how evil it was and how its effects still linger.

Tehn Diamond, rapper

There is no story behind my bookshelf. It’s quite literally a shelf in my closet. I keep my little treasures tucked away safely right at the back. My best reading place is in the bathtub – and I use my iPad. One of my favourite books include The Pleasures Of The Damned, the definitive collection of Charles Bukowski’s poems. It helped me get through a rough patch earlier this year. I flicked through a couple pages and landed on a poem called “The Harder You Try”, which ended with “… if there is light, it will find you”. Once I read that, a huge weight was lifted from my soul. I could breathe again, I was content to just be and wait patiently for whatever would come next. Another favourite is Empire State of Mind by Zack O’Malley Greenburg. It’s a really dope behind-the-scenes look at the business moves of one of my music industry heroes, Jay Z. I’m a massive fan of both Jay Z the musician and Jay Z the businessman, so this book was Christmas twice over.

Click here to do our shelfie quiz. We’ve put together a fun pop quiz to help you figure out what shelfie you are and have decor ideas for each personality type. When you’re done, snap a shelfie in your home and send it to us to stand the chance of winning a prize. 

Originally published on MB Life.

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Usually associated with ultra high-strength, high-tech steel, we couldn’t help but crack a smile at this life-size beaded replica of the brand new Mercedes Benz C-Class. Of course, the fact that handmade continues to be a prevailing worldwide trend in luxury goods perfectly expresses our feelings about the car too!

The world is abuzz about the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which will be revealed to an eager South African public soon. And in the wake of a R2-billion upgrade to the Eastern Cape plant, Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) decided to commemorate the event in innovative style. 

To celebrate the new W205 C-Class, six craftsmen from the Eastern Cape created a life-sized replica from wire and beads. Initially 24 local craftsmen were invited to submit miniature replicas of the luxurious new car – which were then shown to Mercedes-Benz workers who voted for their favourites.

The six chosen artists – Teddy Mutasa, Khayalethu Nqono, Eddie Jange, Johnson Sithole, Busana Sibanda and Mzoxolo Makalima – then became an integral part of the Mercedes-Benz family. Every day for a month, the six clocked in like everyone else and worked tirelessly on the ambitious craft project.

“I was excited from the beginning of this initiative,” says team leaser Mzoxolo. “It was a challenging experience.” The talented bead worker adds that building the model made him think about his childhood. “I used to make wire cars just to play with them, but now there stands before me a resounding success and I am proud.”

In total the car took 232 hours, 11km of wire and 3 million beads to create – and just like the real W205 C-Class, it’s a stunning work of art!

Production on the actual W205 C-Class has also started in earnest at the Eastern Cape Mercedes-Benz plant. The luxury vehicles will be exported to Europe, Australia, Japan and other Asian markets.

Originally published on mblife.co.za

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