COROBRIK
A mixture of Corobrik’s facebrick and paver
range has been used in the construction of
Century City Square.
Paolo Viotti of VIVID Architects and his team
opted for the Corobrik’s range of timeless
facebricks
and
pavers,
because
of
their
aesthestic qualities, as well as the economic
benefits going forward.
“All the facebricks chosen were local, which
suited the look and feel we wanted to achieve
while being an economically viable option.”
Some 148,000 Cape Stormberg Travertine,
223,500 De Hoop Red Smooth and 296,500
Natural Earth Travertine facebricks were used.
“We wanted to identify the different buildings
by the brick colour selection in order to provide
architectural differentiation within the precinct,”
he explained. “We used the Natural Earth
Travertine facebrick for the conference centre
and hotel to tie them together as one façade on
the square. We used the De Hoop Red Smooth
facebrick for the Matrix mixed-use building to
give that contemporary, industrial, warehouse
building feel.”
The Stormberg Travertine facebrick was used as
an accent facebrick which revealed and recessed
panels, to highlight the ‘floating’ lighter brick
façades. For The Apex office tower, which was
always seen as a slick, sheer glass façade,
the team wanted to offset the surround-ing
buildings in terms of architectural design.
“The architectural façade treatment and design
is one of floating planes of facebrick that is
supported off concealed steel angle supports,
• The Matrix – a mixed use development of ground floor retail,
three storeys of sectional title offices, with a further three storeys
comprising 51 luxury apartments and
• A six floor structured parking building which, together with a
super basement parking garage, provides a total of 1,330 parking
bays for the buildings around the Century City Square.
The Square development is situated in the Bridgeways precinct
of Century City, which is being sustainably designed in its entirety.
The first five office buildings in the precinct have been awarded
Green Star ratings – the Business Centre and Philip Morris have
both received a 4 Star Green Star SA Office v1, while the Chevron
building received a 5 Star Green Star SA Office v1 – Design rating
and the 18,000m2 Bridge Park development – the new home
of Absa in the Western Cape – has achieved a 5-Star Green
Star Rating.
The entire mixed use Century City Square development has
been registered with Green Building Council of South Africa Urban
Square and, in fact, is a pilot project for a new mixed-use rating tool.
SOURCE IBA COMMENT
Source Interior Brand Architecture was briefed by Rabie Property
Group to create a conference space that was large enough to
attract prestigious events but intimate enough to care for smaller
meeting events. The need, therefore, was for a space that felt
hospitable and attended to when occupied to full capacity or even
just a single 4-person meeting.
In keeping with the architectural scheme created by Vivid
Architects for the piazza and surrounding complex, the design
concept was to respect and celebrate the material qualities of
the building.
The brief was to create a scheme that feels fully achieved
even when not fully occupied, but can gracefully recede into the
SITE PLAN
allowing for the contemporary nature of the
design of all the buildings,” he explained.
To tie into the façade design, 19,500 65mm
Natural Earth pavers were chosen while 73mm
De Hoop pavers were used to connect the
design with the rest of the Century City sidewalk
specifications. A herringbone pattern was used
for all paving to handle the constant movement.
“Facebrick is a maintenance-free façade which
reduces costs down the line,” said Viotti. “It is
also a wholely natural material which gives an
honest, modern design that provides interest
in terms of its texture and modulation. The
facebrick really lends itself to that vision,
offering a tactile, warm material which provides
a modern backdrop to streets and public.”
KEY TO SITE PLAN
1 - APEX Offices & Restaurants
2 - ANNEX Offices
3 - Century City Conference Centre
4 - Century City Parking Facility
5 - MATRIX Apartments, Offices, and Retail
6 - Century City Hotel
7 - ‘Impromptu’ The Language Pavilion
8 - Century City Square
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Century City Square