with turning this into a state-of-the-art home for all their head office activities , including the Afrihost call centre .
Esteves & Associates coordinated a team of professionals with KMH Architects to assist Afrihost in realising this brief . Their strong in-house branding and design team also formed part of the team , particularly on the interior finishes and furniture of the project .
Project Concept The existing building presented two major challenges to the design team . Firstly , it had a very rigid language set firmly in the 1980s with ribbon windows and deep false face brick panels clipped onto the façade , which was a pigeon haven . Secondly , the existing floor to soffit heights were sub-standard , allowing virtually no ceiling void for services and with Afrihost as the occupier , there were loads of services to be accommodated .
The floor slabs were increased marginally around the building edges to reclaim the pigeon havens into the building . The old brick cladding was then either plastered or new panels constructed to suit the new requirements within . A new glazed entrance box was clipped onto the building which reflects the openness and transparency of the organisation . New roof sheeting was placed over the existing roof sheeting to address the poor state of the existing sheeting and the leaking gutters .
Afrihost 303