GoldenEdge MDF fits out Christchurch’s ‘Pop Up’ Mall

When Christchurch’s City Mall ‘popped up’, nine months after the February earthquake, GoldenEdge MDF was part of the action. The Pop Up Mall fulfilled the promise of having the city centre open by Cup Week in early November, with retailers and cafes clustered around the centerpiece of the Ballantynes’ department store.
The Pop Up Mall was created from shipping containers, and when South Island NPIL Representative Ken Spicer heard word of it he talked with some contacts of his at Placemakers Riccarton.
“They gave us the opportunity to put in a price and we won the contract to supply 25 packs of 12mm GoldenEdge MDF to Leighs Construction as the interior lining for the containers,” he explains. “Timber battens were fixed to the interior of the containers and then the MDF sheets were put in place and sprayed with a white paint finish to achieve a top class surface.”
The container fit out is by far the largest post-quake contract for raw MDF supply. Ken Spicer says the shopping complex is an extraordinary achievement, given that it was built in an eight-week time frame.
“Really when you’re there and inside the shops you wouldn’t know they were shipping containers,” he says. “It’s been very good for morale to have Ballantynes open and the mall up and going, even though you can see the Grand Chancellor coming down over the fence.”