Architect and Builder January/February 2016

PROJECT FEATURE TOUCHSTONE HOUSE TOUCHSTONE HOUSE Cape Town DEVELOPER FWJK PROJECT MANAGERS Key Projects QUANTITY SURVEYORS FWJK ARCHITECT Axion Architects STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Bergstan South Africa MECHANICAL, WET SERVICES AND FIRE Aurecon Group ELECTRICAL ENGINEER HAMSA Consulting Engineers MAIN CONTRACTOR Stabilid (Cape) Construction PHOTOGRAPHY Fiona Barclay Smith Louise Fenner-Solomon 30 I ncorporating the old with the new, Touchstone House combines a heritage façade with a contemporary office building in the heart of Cape Town. Developer’s Objective FWJK Developments identified a significant shortage of sectional title offices for sale in the Cape Town City Centre and was offered the Touchstone House Development as a previously ‘failed’ development after its unsuccessful launch to the sectional title market in 2008. FWJK detected poor design efficiencies in both office and parking levels as well as in the external façade as the probable causes for the failure of the previous design. On the basis of FWJK’s proven track record of Co-development at Cost in KZN, it launched its first sectional title office project to the Cape Town market in 2013 and, surprisingly, 40% of the sectional title sales were snapped up by its Durban investor base, with the balance being sold to Cape Town based investors and end users. The investor interest was principally driven by the attractiveness of the Urban Development Zone income tax incentives which are deductible from income tax as an accelerated depreciation benefit due to the project’s location in a viable CBD where investors and end users wer

Architect and Builder January/February 2016 | Page 32