Architect and Builder April 2017 | Page 62

THIS SPREAD: The first building houses the majority of the staff and is the pragmatic one; rectilinear, bold and efficient between the two buildings, both in their forms and through their relationship with the ground and water of the dam. The first building – the building that houses the majority of the staff – was to be the pragmatic one, rectilinear, bold and efficient, but one that defied conventions. The offices are located one storey up, harnessing the view of the dam to the north and the Bronberge mountains to the south-west. 62 The suspended offices are anchored by a triple volume entrance foyer and, on the opposite end, by an off-shutter concrete blade wall, through which the office wing pierces. The entrance foyer is a thick-walled cube – a ‘server’ to the building - punctured only with slit windows, but glazed from top to bottom on its eastern entrance wall, as if the concrete blade wall in the distance was disconnected from it and CCB HQ