Completed in 2025, Stage 6 of the Burnside Village redevelopment was designed by Buchan in collaboration with the Cohen Group Cohen Group, RCP Consulting, Hansen Yuncken, WT Partnership and Colliers.

In addition to its 80 new stores across three levels, the facility includes enhanced community spaces, additional free parking, and new dining, ‘health and wellness’ and ‘home and lifestyle’ precincts.

According to Gregg Downer, CEO of Cohen Group, the brief for the project was clear: respect what Burnside Village already was, then push it further.

"The new architecture respects the established DNA character of the existing centre, while introducing a more aspirational, globally informed design language," explains Downer.

Rather than presenting a single monolithic form along the Greenhill Road frontage, the architects opted for a collection of distinct building forms. They adopted a deliberately granular approach that maintains the feel of a high street, with all the pedestrian exploration that invites.

Inside, wide light-filled malls, glazed atrium ceilings and interconnecting voids create what Downer describes as an urban village environment.

Inspiration drawn from the original Vine Mall is evident in the indoor planting and landscaping that runs throughout the new precincts, while five original sculptural works, commissioned in partnership with Guildhouse, are included in the redeveloped centre.

Woven into the public realm, each one is site-specific and each is by a South Australian artist.

Downer acknowledges that building at scale inside a fully operational, retail centre was not a simple task.

“The scale and complexity were significant. At the same time, the centre was continuing to operate as a destination people relied on," he says.

As a result, construction staging, customer access, retailer coordination, and program management had to be mapped and remapped continuously.

"One of the biggest challenges was holding onto the quality and ambition of the architectural outcome while working through the realities of an operational centre,” says Downer.

Despite the difficulties, the outcomes were positive. Delivery was on-budget delivery, all time milestones were met, and early tenancy handover was achieved. Now fully operational, Burnside Village was awarded Lifestyle Mall of the Year – Australia at the 2026 Retail Asia Awards in Singapore.

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