Architect and Builder January/February 2016 | Page 37

Architectural or Engineering Challenges
As with any project involving heritage buildings, one
should expect the unexpected.
Initial surveys of the buildings (pre-demolition)
did not seem to indicate major issues, but once
basement level of the adjacent building was reached,
it became clear that the engineers were going to be
in for an interesting time. The basement foundations
were stone packed and in order to install the lateral
support piles, about 1m of space in the basement
had to be forfeited. The next surprise came when
the survey of the excavation was received. The
same building exceeded the erf boundary in an
ever increasing manner, ending up a further 700mm
into our property. This caused a major rethink of the
escape routes and staircases in the area.
While the demolition and excavation was in
process, final plan approval was in progress. FWJK
Developments had already received provisional
approval to commence with construction to ground
level, when the Local Authority notified us of a land
dedication that was made to the Council in the
late ‘50’s. A 36m2 portion of land included in the
design was affected by this dedication. This was
not picked up during the due diligence period as the
dedication was never registered against the property
title deeds, but it was subsequently found to be
legal and in effect. Plans then had to be amended
to exclude this portion of the site in order to achieve
plan approval and FWJK was forced to apply to
purchase the land from Council and, on conclusion
of the public process, we had to resubmit the plans
with the dedicated section included.

concrete structure with downstand beams to stiffen
the edges of the slab and also to function as the
lintels for the linear window elements. All walls are
conventional brick infill construction. The glazing of
the building is partially conventional glass and part
curtain wall.
We made extensive use of Marmoran products on
the external façade, partially because of the durability
of the product, but also because it has the inherent
ability to smooth out minor imperfections that tend
to become very noticeable once the scaffolding is
removed from a building. A specialist plasterer did
some excellent remedial work on the historic façade
and the majority of the damaged timber windows
were either refurbished or in the instances where
the fire damage was too substantial, were replaced
with custom made windows.

Description of Material Used
The construction methods are generally
conventional. Use was made of a post tensioned
Touchstone House

35