Visual fantasy erected at Menlyn Park

"Washed in purple light, the installation is suspended and runs partially down a three-metre-high wall, allowing the public to walk right up to and beneath it, so that it becomes a magical interactive experience," said Andrea de Wit, Marketing Manager of the centre.

The origami installation is a temporary structure designed to hoard some of the second-phase redevelopment work underway at the centre. Behind the wall, demolition of a portion of the existing Checkers Hyper mall is taking place, with the additional new retail centre slated to go up in its place by November 2016.

Menlyn Park Shopping Centre contracted local artist Elizabeth Lotz to create a visual fantasy that shoppers can marvel at. The design and assembly process of the massive origami installation - based on the Japanese art of paper folding - is ongoing and will continuously grow, with new features being added on a regular basis.

Individually machine cut

"Each flower and leaf pattern was individually machine cut, page by page, then the flowers were each folded by hand," De Wit explained. "The hand-crafted process makes the installation one of a kind, and adds to its appeal."

Never before seen on such a scale or in such a context in South Africa, the origami project follows similar installations in other fashion capitals around the world, including Berlin, London, and Bangkok. Pretoria's jacaranda wall is made out of paper that's chlorine and acid free, and approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

"The artistic challenge of the project was to create a visual that would evoke an emotion," said De Wit. "We've tried to capture the essence of what you feel when driving down a jacaranda-lined street in full bloom - it leaves you breathless."

Menlyn Park chose origami - believed to be a first for retail in South Africa - over other conventional hoarding methods because of the synergies that exist between the pattern-making process of origami, and the texture, colour and variety of retail fashion in South Africa.