Werdmuller Centre

City of Cape Town, South Africa

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

Built in Claremont, Cape Town, the Werdmuller Centre was a striking brutalist shopping complex designed by architect Roelof Uytenbogaardt and completed around 1975. Named after George Werdmuller, a former chairman of Old Mutual, the centre was conceived as a mixed-use modernist landmark when construction began in 1970. Despite its architectural significance, the building struggled commercially for decades, eventually closing in 2012 after its final tenant departed. Following a failed demolition bid in 2006 opposed by heritage advocates, the centre was repurposed as a film set—notably for *The Dark Tower* (2016) and the *Resident Evil* television series (2021)—before being acquired by New Property Ventures. A 2023 redevelopment approval authorized partial demolition and transformation into a mixed-use project called the Neo, ensuring the brutalist structure's partial preservation.

Architect

R. S. Uytenbogaardt

Movement

brutalist architecture

Type: shopping center
Place: City of Cape Town, South Africa

This building on

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Location

-33.98139, 18.46583