Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa September/October 2014 | Page 52

The building has two
pools, a communal pool
on the 6th floor and an
exclusive use roof pool
for the penthouse

reinforced concrete framed structure with a
twist. A reinforced concrete transfer slab was
introduced at ground floor level. This was a
more economical design for the client and it
gave the Architects flexibility of design of the
apartments for the floors above.
The building has two pools, a communal
pool on the 6th floor and an exclusive use roof
pool for the penthouse. The structure had
to be designed to handle the load of these
pools. Due to the existing Oak trees which
extended within the basement envelope of
the building, measures had to be taken within

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the structural design. This required reinforced
concrete gunite walls with rock anchors that
had to be strategically placed in order to
anchor the soil and tree, whilst missing the
root bulb of the tree itself.
The penthouse was very important to the
client and a number of columns were omitted
at this level to allow for a larger open plan
spaces with better views. The engineers
were able to achieve these larger spans and
longer cantilevers by introducing reinforced
concrete upstand beams on the roof. The
penthouse has exclusive use of the roof

The Odyssey