It was a striking break with traditional Dutch Architecture of the time ,” says Schlapobersky . “ This building , no 6 , is the last in the Office Park located at the corner of Main Road and Culross Road in Bryanston Johannesburg ,” explains Ivan Schlapobersky of M / Architects . “ Over the years our firm has specialized in the design of office parks in South Africa and Zimbabwe . This one is the fifteenth such park , most of them bigger than Culross on Main .” The site was formerly a large private home with a well-established garden , which had become quite out of place recently facing onto what has developed into a major arterial road , Main Road . The building is 2447m 2 and three storeys in height . The total area of the Office Park is 9778m 2 and 104 parking bays are accommodated on site ( a ratio of 4.3 bays / 100m 2 ).
“ The major issue with the site was that , if we wanted the building to be visible from the road , it had to be west facing . We thus adopted a balanced approach of solid walls and shielded floor to ceiling glass facing west ,” notes Schlapobersky . The glass though is well shielded by overhangs of 1m plus , meaning that only in late afternoon in summer ( after 4.30pm ) does it become a problem and blinds need to be used for the rest of the working day . On the shaded southern side of the building , they used extensive glass . A large 270m 2 covered terrace is accommodated on the top floor ; the view from this terrace is over northern Johannesburg as far as to the Magaliesburg mountain range .
The topography of the site was a bonus for the architects . It falls steeply from the road into the site and was ideal for site planning as it enabled a parking
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