PROJECT FEATURE
NOVARTIS
HEAD OFFICE
NOVARTIS HEAD OFFICE
Waterfall City, Gauteng
DEVELOPERS
Atterbury Property Developments
LAND OWNER
Attacq
PRINCIPAL AGENT / ARCHITECTS
Aevitas Group; Empowered Architects
QUANTITY SURVEYORS
Pentad Quantity Surveyors
CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
DG Consulting Engineers
MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
RPP Consulting Engineers
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Plantech Associates
WET SERVICES
Wat-Sol Design Technology
FIRE CONSULTANTS
Specialised Fire Technology
GREEN BUILDING CONSULTANTS
Aurecon South Africa
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
Uys & White Landscape Architects
SAFETY CONSULTANTS
Cairnmead Industrial Consultants
MAIN CONTRACTOR
Group Five Building
TEXT / PHOTOGRAPHY
Supplied by Aevitas Group
W
aterfall City is a new city development which is conveniently located between
Sandton and Pretoria with easy access - via Allandale Road - to the N1 highway.
It is the largest urban concept development in South Africa and brings all the
advantages of being able to plan a new city from scratch. With 800,000m2 of development
rights in the CBD alone it will be a truly integrated mixed-use development that focuses
on best-practice Urban Design Principles to create a pleasant and sustainable live/work
environment. Novartis was one of the first major corporates to occupy an entire building in
the CBD for their new head office.
Their site is positioned within the new Waterfall City CBD with very good exposure to
Allandale Road and easy access from the main ring road of the City. The site itself is very
narrow on the eastern side, widening out towards the west. There is also a considerable
slope across the site with almost a 6m level difference from east to west.
Brief
The brief was to create a contemporary, P-grade building to house a new head office for
Novartis. The architecture needed to be in line with the quality of buildings that Novartis
was occupying internationally while creating a strong local identity for the company. The
planning needed to be flexible to accommodate growth and movement for various business
units and subsidiaries within Novartis. It was also critical that the building created a healthy
environment for its staff and that it encouraged interaction and communication between staff.
At the same time the building had to set a bench mark for future buildings within Waterfall
City. It was essential that the building demonstrated best practice in responsible Urban
Design and Environmental Sustainability.
Concept & Planning
The basic concept was to create a building that took direction from and accentuated the
physical attributes of the site. There were two major attributes which were immediately
NORTH EAST ELEVATION
32
Novartis