of having pedestrian colonnades around the perimeter of the site also strongly informed the building envelope , creating a courtyard atrium result . The building has two basements which are accessed via the City ’ s Delta Street ramps on the west corner of the site . 182 parking bays are accommodated in the basement . An additional 376 bays are accommodated in above ground structured parking on the first to fourth floors . A requirement was for a minimum of four bays per 100m 2 of lettable office space .
The ground floor of the building creates the important interface between the built form and the human scale . Pedestrian colonnades are important in this regard . The colonnades not only serve as pedestrian streets accessing the building , but also offer an opportunity for hard and soft landscaping , enhancing the urban design landscape . Strong activity edges are envisaged on all sides of the site . The north west edge interfacing with North Wharf Square enjoys a widened glazed canopy with restaurant and entertainment opportunities both indoors and outdoors . The ground floor also functions as the main reception lobbies for both office cores , the access ramp to the above ground structural parking and accommodates service functions .
The first five office floors are situated around two atria in the case of floors five , six and seven and one large atrium in the case of floors eight and nine . The offices are served by two shuttle lifts from the basements and six high speed lifts serving ground to fourteenth floors . The building has been designed so as to comply with the height and set back envelope determined by the City of Cape Town . At first viewed as constraints , these
limitations soon begin informing an articulated and exciting building form . The main volumetric elements of the building are as follows :
The Base The first five floors of the building form the base . It is entirely rectilinear when viewed from the north and entirely curvilinear from the south . The base determines the extremity of the building envelope and reads as a solid well proportioned element . The materials for the colonnade and the parking levels are common , with glazed curtain wall shop fronts beyond the colonnade at Ground floor . The vertical colonnade elements extend right
SHG House 25