Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa March/April 2015 | Page 6

EDITORIAL I am the proud mother of a son at university, the University of Cape Town to be exact. To add to this pride, he is the sixth generation of my family to attend this institution, so I was extraordinarily pleased when he selected my almer mater. That being said, my eldest has always had very strong opinions which he expresses with fervour and single-mindedness – becoming a tertiary level student has pushed this tendency to an entirely new level! Nothing has brought out this zeal more than the furore surrounding the statue of Cecil John Rhodes. Should it stay as an important historical piece or should it be removed as a symbol of oppression and colonialist tyranny? My son has very definite opinions about this and he airs them regularly and with Shelley Woode-Smith much passion. OUR TEAM EDITOR Shelley Woode-Smith [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Louise Fenner-Solomon [email protected] CONSULTING EDITOR Diana Woode [email protected] DESIGN Peter Fenner-Solomon The ‘debate’ around this statue led me to thinking about buildings and their legacy – as someone who publishes articles about beautiful and significant edifices, I feel quite paternalistic about architecture, whether ancient or modern. If a building is considered controversial for whatever reason, do you think there is a case to demolish it, or should it be left for future generations to see, irrespective of the controversy? In a country where transformation and revised thinking is slow in happening, this is an interesting subject to explore. As always, this is a bumper issue with some fabulous projects. This issue we [email protected] feature Chevron South Africa’s new head office at Century City. It achieved a five ADVERTISING SALES Shelley Woode-Smith Louise Fenner-Solomon star green as built rating from the GBCSA. Another Cape Town-based project is The Watershed at the V & A Waterfront. The combining of the Blue Shed craft ACCOUNTS Bonnie Ah Shene market and the Maritime Museum resulted in the Watershed being born. PUBLISHER Peter Fenner-Solomon regional head office and our third project. Finally, we feature Atrium on 5th in [email protected] [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS We welcome articles, photographs and news items relating to architecture, buildings, building methods and building materials. Good quality photographs are vital. Only simple and clearly drawn plans are suitable for printing. No reponsibility can be taken for lost or damaged material. FNB Acacia House, based in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, is the bank’s new Sandton, Johannesburg. Previously known as the Sandton Twin Towers, this building has undergone a major reconfiguration. Once again, we feature two commercial interior projects, namely Santam corporate offices in Durbanville and the Market Square facility for Standard Bank in Rosebank. Finally, I am so excited to announce that we are launching our first supplement in the next issue. We begin with ‘Surfaces’ and more information on this addition to the magazine can be found on pages 8 and 9. The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the editor or publishers. CONTACT US TELEPHONE 021 683 3766 FACSIMILE 021 671 7348 E-MAIL[email protected] Shelley Woode-Smith Editor POSTBox 36090, Glosderry 7702 WEBSITEwww.archibuild.co.za 6 Editorial