New Barloworld & Caterpillar Head Office & Showroom
COMMERCIAL CATEGORY WINNER , ARCHITECTURAL CATEGORY COMMENDATION
The new Barloworld and Caterpillar head office and showroom in Isando is dedicated to heavy earthmoving equipment . Designed by Paragon Architects , the development consists of a head office , showroom and new training campus . The showroom alone is a first of a kind in the country and is split into two zones , namely ‘ tyre ’ and ‘ track ’ product categories , with both open and enclosed areas .
The most immediately noticeable feature of the 3,200m 2 new showroom structure is its elongated frontfacing bubble profile , inspired by the curved shape of the Caterpillar excavator tread . Not only is this an iconic tribute to the earthmoving equipment showcased within , but it also allows this huge machinery to be exhibited in the voluminous interior space . Coupled with a vast glass façade , which makes the interior exhibit perfectly visible from the R24 highway , this becomes far more than a cutting-edge combination of corporate head office and flagship showroom . How can such huge apparatus easily enter or be extracted from this space ? The building claims a never-been-done-before international breakthrough with a staggering 8.8m x 5.5m piece of the prominent glass frontage being fully retractable via intricate motordriven automation .
A challenge was the dimensions of the showroom and how to move the equipment in and out . ‘ It requires massive clearance in height as well as width to turn one of these mammoths .’ Paragon took for its starting point the roller shutters used to access the Caterpillar servicing warehouses . But the architects wanted to use glass , not metal , so in what they believe is a world first , they elected to vertically slide a 8.4m by 5.5m section of the high-performance glass frontage upwards , using a complex motor system installed upstairs and hung from a structural beam .
A steel girder framework was created to provide for the track-shaped design of each of the two bubbles , with large spanning trusses that carry the roofs , all sitting on a specially devised grid ( increased to 12m or 15m ) to accommodate the different-sized equipment required . Finally corrugated iron was applied like an external skin .
Client / Developer : Eris Property Group Architect : Paragon Architects Engineer : DG Consulting Engineers Quantity Surveyor : Matla Quantity Surveyors Project Manager : SIP Project Managers Main Contractor : Trencon Construction Steelwork Contractor & Erector : Central Welding Works Cladding Manufacturer / Supplier : Global Roofing Solutions Cladding Contractor : Chartwell Roofing Paintwork Contractor : Dram Industrial Painters Paintwork Contractor : First Class Projects Structural Steel Detailer : KRU Detailing
Steel Awards 57