Architect and Builder February/March 2019 | Page 30

The buildings functionality and Green tech-
nology in many ways took centre stage in the
planning as there are quite a few different plant
and engineering facilities being accommodated
within the building.
Site
The site is located on the corners of Buitengracht,
Hout and Breë Streets in the Cape Town city
centre. It is a densely built up area and buildings
surround the site very closely. Special care had to
be taken in the demolition phase not to damage
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neighboring buildings. Some of the buildings next
to and part of the site were Heritage buildings. The
piling was a critical phase and special care in the
form of monitoring and bracing had to be done to
secure the Heritage buildings.
There were two existing buildings on the
site - Beaufort House was not of great heritage
value and was demolished to make way for the
new building. The main reason for the demolition
was the impractical column structure of the
existing building that prevented it from being
successfully integrated. The other building,
Electricity House