1 The “island” problem – and why it is reaching its limits

For three decades, enclosed “super-malls” dominated Southeast-Asian retail. Built as climate-controlled boxes, they floated like islands in a sea of traffic, demanding huge parking decks and heavy-duty A/C. The model is cracking:

  • Costly retrofits. Re-skin-and-refit cycles for 150 000 m² boxes regularly exceed US $100 million.

  • Urban fragmentation. Blank façades sever the fine grain that gives shop-house districts their life.

  • Tourism experience gap. Post-pandemic travellers prefer open streetscapes over generic interiors.

2 A perfect storm is pushing the region toward lighter, distributed formats

Driver

What is changing now

Transit connectivity

ASEAN cities are in their steepest rail-building cycle ever—Jakarta MRT Ph 2&3, Bangkok’s Pink & Yellow monorails (2024), Manila’s 33 km subway (ground-breaking 2025), HCMC Metro L1 and more.

Urban-revitalisation policy

TOD zoning in Jakarta, Bangkok’s Bang Sue Grand, Singapore’s Punggol Digital District all pressure retail to spill into plazas rather than hide behind tinted glass.

Climate & ESG

Cooling a sealed mall at 35 °C ambient makes it hard to meet the new 160 kWh/m²·yr Super-Low-Energy target set by Singapore’s BCA.(www1.bca.gov.sg)

Experience-led tourism

Open-air destinations such as Bangkok’s Asiatique (adding a 6 000 m² immersive park in 2025) prove visitors will spend longer—and spend more—when the public realm is authentic.

3 The emerging alternative: a decentralised, semi-outdoor retail archipelago

Instead of one monolithic mall, developers are experimenting with clusters of small pavilions and shop-houses stitched into public space:

  1. Permeable blocks with deep eaves and cross-ventilation cut common-area energy 40–50 %.

  2. Modular life-cycle—each 1 000–3 000 m² block can be demolished or topped-up without shutting the neighbours.

  3. Transit plug-ins—blocks hug new station exits, converting passenger flow into footfall with almost no parking.

  4. Tourism layers—pop-ups, night markets and art walks add seasonal “renewability” without cap-ex.

3A The numbers in context

Energy Use Intensity

Figure 1 – Energy Use Intensity
(bar-chart above) shows that a semi-outdoor retail street can run on roughly half the energy of an enclosed mall while still meeting comfort codes.

Approximate Construction Cost

Figure 2 – Construction Cost
The capital cost gap—about SGD 1 000 per m²—comes largely from lighter MEP, smaller spans and reduced façade glazing.

Metric

Traditional enclosed mall

Semi-outdoor “archipelago”

Source

Energy-use intensity

≈ 280 kWh/m²·yr (U.S. ENERGY STAR median 225 kBtu/ft²)(portfoliomanager.energystar.gov)

≈ 140 kWh/m²·yr (meets BCA Super-Low-Energy target)(www1.bca.gov.sg)

see Figure 1

Typical construction cost (Singapore, 2Q 2024)

SGD 3 200–3 700 /m²(asiainfrasolutions.com, sgoffices.com)

SGD 2 200–2 700 /m² (-30 %)(sgoffices.com)

see Figure 2

4 Early Southeast-Asian exemplars

Project

City

Format highlights

One Holland Village (2023-24)

Singapore

Low-rise shaded “lanes”, only tenant units air-conditioned.

Punggol Coast Mall (2024)

Singapore

Semi-outdoor ring directly over MRT portal, event steps in lieu of food court atrium.

WEAVE @ Resorts World Sentosa (2025)

Singapore

100 % outdoor entertainment street, biodiverse landscaping.

Asiatique Riverfront 2.0

Bangkok

Heritage warehouses plus small-footprint F&B pavilions—cap-ex a third of a new mall.

5 Urban-planning principles for the retail archipelago

  1. Block-by-block phasing—60–90 m deep plots approved under one master plan yet financed independently.

  2. Shade first, cool second—5 m arcades, ETFE skylights and mist fans keep mean radiant temp ~27 °C.

  3. Street-carved F&B—restaurants protrude onto verandas; exhaust ducts stay short and easy to re-route.

  4. Mix fixed & mobile retail—anchor brands ring station exits; courtyards host container kiosks rotated quarterly.

  5. Night-time programming—open plazas double as concert or festival grounds, vital for domestic tourism.

6 Economic & environmental pay-offs (five-year window)

  • -30 % cap-ex on day-one build.

  • -50 % operating energy relative to enclosed baseline.

  • 15–25 % tenant area affected during refits vs ~100 % in a mono-block mall.

  • Easier ESG finance—meeting <160 kWh/m² qualifies for green-loan rate reductions.

7 Policy actions to accelerate the shift

  1. TOD bonuses for schemes with ≥60 % naturally-ventilated circulation.

  2. Green-lease templates sharing energy-savings upside between landlord and tenant.

  3. Micro-parcel REITs to lower financing cost for multiple small blocks.

  4. Tourism tax rebates for adaptive-reuse retail around heritage assets.

8 Building the retail “archipelago” era

With metros, LRTs and monorails stitching ASEAN cities together faster than ever, the old “island mall” no longer fits how people move or how investors price carbon. A distributed, semi-outdoor typology captures new mobility patterns, halves operating energy and lets owners refresh blocks one piece at a time—setting Southeast-Asian retail up for a resilient, low-carbon second life.

Reference list

  1. Asia Infrastructure Solutions. (2023). Construction Cost Review 3Q 2023: Singapore Market Overview. Asia Infrastructure Solutions. Retrieved 4 June 2025. asiainfrasolutions.com

  2. Building and Construction Authority (BCA). (2024, 19 November). Green Mark 2021 – Energy Efficiency Simplified Guide (Ver. 2.1): Super Low Energy Buildings. BCA Singapore. https://www1.bca.gov.sg www1.bca.gov.sg

  3. International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). (2016). Shopping Center Energy Intensity Benchmarking Study. ICSC Research. icsc.com

  4. Rider Levett Bucknall. (2024). Singapore Rider’s Digest 2024. RLB Asia. Retrieved 4 June 2025. rlb.com

  5. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024, August). U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type – Technical Reference. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. https://portfoliomanager.energystar.gov portfoliomanager.energystar.gov