Architect and Builder November/December 2018 | Page 73

SAFAL STEEL INNOVATION CATEGORY WINNER
which used steel as part of its flooring system which
was a nice pleasant surprise. The fact that steel is being
used to restore the building, in a way rhymes with the old
building. The innovation lies in the fact that the developers
and the owners have taken the initiative to preserve that
building. The CBD has a lot of old buildings that are very
beautiful and I hope this is going to continue.
The technical innovation comes in that the team is
building an entire frame building, inside another building.
This is very complicated to do because you can’t access
the site with cranes. What they did was use light enough
steel structures that could be lifted by small equipment,
and then assembled them into something large enough
to support those multi story brickwork façades. Well done
to the team for what must have been a very complicated
design, fabrication and erection process.
Rissik Street Post Office
The Rissik Street Post Office was built in 1897 and
the floor added in 1910. It operated as a post office for its
entire life span, and was abandoned in the 1990s. There
were a number of projects to try and renovate it, starting
from the 90s to the present day. Unfortunately, it caught
fire in 2009, and thats where the architects became
involved. It was imperative to develop this building and
give it more life. The fire was devastating, but it provided
a real opportunity to essentially insert a new building into
an old building. This is the ultimate recycling of a building
and giving it a new life.
What made the Risskik Street Post Office project
quite challenging was firstly the location in the centre
of Johannesburg and secondly working with a building
that is over 100 years old which was damaged by fire
and required some careful management from all involved
to makes sure that the final product was as per spec
and engineering.
One of the challenges was the fact the roof structure
couldn’t be removed to bring in the new steelwork.
Everything was made in pieces that were easy to handle
that could be brought into the building via window or
door openings.
In terms of getting the structural steel up the biggest
challenge was that the building had to be measured to
make sure that whatever was brought to site would actually
fit. Some of the walls were leaning outward already and
each girder had to be customised to make sure that the
space utilisation was correct. Very few modifications were
done, and in most cases it was an engineering decision
to allow existing features to remain. One of the biggest
concerns was the existing steel structure, which was over
100 years old as well.
The brickwork varied quite drastically between levels.
Sections were built at different times, so the quality of
the brick varied.
Judges Comment, Amanuel Gebremeskel - There are
two aspects of this projects that I would classify as being
very innovative. One is the restoration and preservation
of the post office building itself. That is something that
is relatively new in the South African context. What is
notable is that it’s one of the first buildings in the world
Steel Awards
Client: City of Johannesburg
Architect: Paradigm Architects
Structural Engineer: Asakheni
Steel Contractor and Erector:
MPW Steel Construction
Main Contractor: Inkanyeli
Photography: MPW Steel Construction
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