Architect and Builder January/February 2016 | Page 34
Client Brief
Axion Architects received the design brief for
Touchstone House late in November 2012. The
project had been in development for some time and
previous architectural practices had done initial work
on the redevelopment of the site, but the numbers
did not work and we were briefed to rationalise the
design efficiency of previous attempts. The site is
located within the Cape Town Foreshore – an area
that has seen rapid development in recent times.
Consisting of several individual properties, all owned
by a single owner, the brief was to optimise the
site, but to remain within all the existing planning
parameters. These included a set height restriction
and challenging building setbacks from the two
street frontages. No departures were allowed by
the developer, as these would negatively impact
the tight project programme.
History
Touchstone House is a historic building. Constructed
in 1895, but extensively damaged in a fire a number
of years ago, it posed a further challenge to integrate
parts of the structure that had remained relatively
undamaged into the new design. A Heritage
application process was already underway as part of
the previous 2008 development process and Axion
had to slot their design proposal seamlessly into
the process to avoid a new heritage submission.
The client, FWJK Developments, had certain
strict pre-set requirements for the building design
and required maximum bulk and maximum
flexibility, as the size of eventual office suites were
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unknown and could vary widely and, furthermore,
they had to accommodate office suite sizes from
80m² to entire floors.
Concept
The historical Touchstone warehouse façade and
a portion of the entrance was relatively unscathed
by the fire. It was decided that the façade and the
entrance section be retained and incorporated in
the design during the preceding heritage processes.
Hence the design stayed within the parameters as
agreed with Council and Heritage Western Cape.
Set-backs were utilised in order to achieve a
layered appearance for the building. The heritage
façade was retained as the strong visual anchor at
street level and the new façade was set back by
5m. The façade was then further layered by the
use of varying solid and lighter elements. Use was
made of full glass corners with strong unbroken
linear windows to create the impression of a glass
façade partially covered with solid elements.
It was decided, based on similar developments
that FWJK had undertaken elsewhere, to use vibrant
colour and texture to emphasise specific elements
and features on the building. Due to the massing (a
direct result of the building line and height setbacks)
the building at once gives the impression of a
number of smaller components, and also of visual
coherence. The colour palette comes straight from
Cape Town itself. Panoramic shots were taken from
the FNB Portside building and these influenced the
development of the colour palette into bold, clean
and distinct blocks.
Touchstone House