KGORO CENTRAL, SANDTON
Kgoro Central echoes the pioneering
spirit that saw the creation of Johannesburg,
its buildings, its parks and its industry. It
is a 200,000m2 mixed use development
comprising offices, retail (including on-street
retail), hotels, residential and cultural/civic
uses together.
Kgoro Central will be located partially on
top of another development, the Sandton
Gautrain Station Basements and Public
Transport Interchange (PTI) Level. This
has made the project a unique design
challenge. Enquiry by design, rather
than the conventional design by enquiry,
has contributed to the outcome of the
development
Regiments and StudioMAS Architects
and Urban Designers, envisioned the
Kgoro precinct as a hub that represented
Johannesburg and its fragmented spaces
born of layers of complexity and loosely
tied together by never-ending strings of
roads. This is the challenge that Kgoro
Central tackles: to create an urban design
and architecture that is a fluid, open public
platform for social, cultural and intellectual
barter, where a person can eat, play and
live, not one that’s dependent solely on
commercial exchange. Pierre Swanepoel and
Kuka Mofu, the architects at StudioMAS have
conveyed that the urban design elements are
meant to “establish goodwill principles for
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a place that is adaptable, connected to its
immediate built environment and exposed
to its natural setting.”
The development consists of eight
different but interlinked buildings, some of
which sit on an eight level parking basement.
The master plan has been completed but
is flexible and can be adapted to allow for
practical building designs as well as different
uses. West Street Block and Rivonia Block
will be the first buildings to be constructed.
The former being designed by LYT Architects
and the latter by StudioMAS are commercial,
residential and hotel blocks which will tie into
the vibrant square below.
The beauty of the development also lies
in its phasing as any building can commence
when required and is not dependant on the
progress of any other building. The only
constraint is the phasing of the basement,
which will commence on Fifth Avenue and
Rivonia Road corner.
Project Watch