FIRST FLOOR PLAN 8TH FLOOR PLAN- TYPICAL
CORE LANDSCAPING CONCEPTS
Open Edges The development required open edges to the street that allowed free flow of pedestrian movement, pulling visitors inwards – welcoming and inviting.
Gateway The landscape needed to differentiate itself, announcing your arrival into the precinct –‘ gateway’ and‘ threshold’ became important elements.
Active Core The three buildings accumulate around a central zone – the heart of the piazza – and the team worked with the architects to ensure that the functions that gathered around this core would activate the space and allow opportunity for gathering and business( cafés and restaurants spill out towards a central space that in turn can be used for functions and exhibitions).
Fluidity of Design With the brief encouraging that the piazza space spill between core and edges, the lines on the ground naturally interpreted paths of movement, bleeding and sweeping below the buildings. Users of the precinct can walk freely between and underneath the building structures and the piazza sweeps through.
Simplification of Aesthetic Common design language, construction-type and materiality were key but each zone of the precinct required various alignments / combinations of those elements to differentiate the spaces and allow for interest in the design. Five years worth of ideas had to be harnessed, broken down and merged into a cohesive whole.
CONCLUSION The completion of Alice Lane Phase 3 marks the end of a 10 year journey towards redefining an entire city block in the heart of Sandton. It sets the benchmark for development in South Africa’ s premier commercial real estate node.
Alice Lane 31