the entire nine floors, the atrium offers a visual link
to the outside while allowing light deeper into the
floor plate and encouraging user activity.
The west façades are shaped towards a curved
glass pinnacle which cantilevers outwards towards
the road. The main façade consists of double
glazed unitised façades, incorporating a dark
grey glass. The outermost façade of the northern
building features a secondary offset glazed ‘skin’
with raking sides, a nod to the fast-paced vehicular
movement on Oxford Road.
The building mass is eroded along ground level
on both the eastern and western edges, which,
together with landscaped pockets and water
features, offer users sheltered spill-out spaces
under and around the building. Sitting proud of
the surrounding canopy line, the building offers
spectacular views across the city from the ground
floor podium upwards.
The landscaping on Ground Floor slopes
gently towards both Oxford Road and Tottenham
Avenue, softening the interface between passers-
by and the building. “We introduced upper
floor terraces at the back of the building as well
as the landscaped berm in acknowledgement
of the low-rise residential fabric bordering the
eastern edge of the site,” Paragon Architect
Laura Strydom reveals.
Construction Challenges
The site’s desirable location on Oxford Road, a
short walk from the Rosebank Gautrain Station,
posed particular construction challenges. “The
Gautrain servitude cuts through the site, which
restricted the allowable construction methodology
to be used. Further to this, Oxford Road sits within
the site boundary. All these factors contributed to a
long and intensive design process which took into
account site-specific parameters, together with
stakeholders’ particular needs and requirements,”
Strydom highlights.
Building Information Modelling ( BIM )
software such as Revit and Navisworks have
been deployed from the outset, with virtual
co-ordination and clash detection done on an
ongoing basis. An eight-person Paragon Group
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144 on Oxford