PROJECT FEATURE
BCX
HEAD OFFICE
BCX HEAD OFFICE
Centurion
CLIENT
BCX HQ Offices Co-ownership JV
PROJECT MANAGER & PRINCIPAL AGENT
JSA & Associates Project Management
R.O.M.
ARCHITECT
SVA International
QUANTITY SURVEYORS
DelQS in a JV with PMPlus
CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Bigen Africa Group Holdings
PDS Civil Engineers
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Quad Africa Consulting
Moditi Consulting Engineers
MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
Spoormaker & Partners Inc
Dientsenere Tsa Meago
FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERS
Ingplan Mechanical Consulting Engineers
WET SERVICES
GIBB
VERTICAL TRANSPORTATION CONSULTANTS
Projitech
SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
WSP
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
Uys & White
INTERIOR DESIGNER & SPACE PLANNER
dsgn design
S
outh African information and technology group, Business Connexion (BCX),
wanted to construct a new headquarters, consolidating their various offices
across Gauteng. Their brief to architects SVA International was to create an
iconic & contemporary building accommodating 36,000m 2 of GLA including offices and
a warehouse of 2,500m 2 . Parking was to be maximised. The building was to contain
client engagement and function areas as well as various showroom aspects to allow
BCX to display their IT vendor offerings to clients.
Site
The site is located in Centurion, on the corner of John Vorster Drive and Lenchen Avenue.
It lies adjacent to Centurion Mall and falls within a short distance of the Centurion
Gautrain Station and numerous multi-occupant modes of public transport, making it
easily accessible and highly visible in the surrounding urban fabric.
The BCX headquarters is the first building to be constructed in a larger development
master plan for the vacant land between the Centurion Mall and John Vorster Drive.
The development master plan allows additional commercial development as well as
public spaces and amenities to be developed on this key piece of vacant land, thereby
strengthening the Centurion CBD as a commercial HUB.
Access to the site is both off Lenchen Ave & South Street, allowing staff, visitor and
delivery access to be assigned to different entrances for efficient vehicular flow through
the site. Pedestrians gain access at either of the two entrances.
Locating the building on the site presented many challenges due to the dolomitic
conditions of the Centurion area. There were two large category seven sink hole areas
on the site that are located close to the main road intersections of John Vorster &
Lenchen Avenue as well as Lenchen Avenue & South Street. This forced the building to
be located towards the back of the site and informed the angular geometries of the plan
as the building ‘wrapped’ itself around these sink hole zones. The remaining portions
of the site allowed for pockets of parking to be separated into visitor and staff parking
areas which in turn informed the entrance locations to the buildings.
MAIN CONTRACTOR
Murray & Roberts Building in a JV with
Fikile Construction
PHOTOGRAPHY
Graham de Lacy
22
BCX