T
he building is situated on the rapidly developing
corridor of Oxford Road, one of Johannesburg’s
busiest arterial roads linking Sandton to the CBD.
The transformation along this road has been quite
remarkable in the last two years. This is probably due
to proximity to the Rosebank Gautrain Station as well
as to the Rosebank office node in general. This office
node is currently one of the most favoured locations
for offices in Johannesburg. It is easily accessible and
is framed by two of J ohannesburg’s most important
arterial roads, Oxford Road and Jan Smuts Avenue on the east and
west of the node respectively. This means that traffic is able to enter
and disperse in many directions. Sandton CBD which is currently
undergoing a construction boom comprising high rise office
buildings does not have this kind of flexibility. As a result access to
Sandton CBD at peak hours is poor and traffic jams are witnessed
every working day. This is not so in Rosebank.
Zoning
The property, Stand 1973 Houghton, required rezoning from
Single Residential to Business in order to proceed with the project.
M/Architects were closely involved with the Houghton Resident’s
Association in developing a suitable interface between what is
probably one of Johannesburg’s most prestigious residential areas
and the new line of business developing fronting onto Oxford Road.
This resulted in generous set backs for the building on the road
that separates the Business area from Residential. Also included
is a generous landscaping border along the sidewalk facing the
residential area in which mature trees have been planted. On
the Oxford Road side of the site, M/Architects had to deal with
a set back of some 13m from the property boundary in order to
accommodate the Gautrain servitude. Between these two onerous
building lines this left a wedge tapering down to just 20m in width
in which the building had to be designed and accommodated including the parking basements.
The Gautrain servitude turned out to be fortuitous in that it left
the architects with a broad landscaping area along Oxford Road in
which a fountain is located. This servitude area will be a common
feature of all the buildings constructed along this major arterial.
This probably would not have occurred had the servitude not
been imposed by Gautrain. A small amount of visitor parking is
accommodated at ground floor level.
The Design
“Since the site is east/west facing along its length, this presented a
dilemma as to how much glass and how much solid façade should
face onto the main arterial road. In such a situation one is always
reluctant to have blank walls facing the road as this offers a fairly
‘dead’ experience of the building in passing along the road,” notes
Ivan Schlapobersky who led the architectural team of Mary Craig
and Pieter Swart.
In the design, a compromise was reached between a north facing
wing with solid end wall facing onto Oxford Road as well as a
glass enclosed main staircase and a length of offices which face
onto the road. Here the western orientation was accommodated
by setting back the glass of the offices behind the north wing and