Design and Resolution GMSA ’ s design brief to its developers and their architects was for a rather unusual and specific combination of offices and staff wellness facilities , workshops and technical training spaces , and marketing and promotions areas . Of the 4,500m 2 of accommodation , a good third is devoted to semi-industrial workshop functions , which would normally prove to be difficult to accommodate elegantly in a high-profile building .
The design concept clearly places the experience of the car as a physical object of desire at the centre of the design of the building . The resultant building is anchored by the way in which cars , as objects , are integrated into the daily life and functioning of the company .
Facing the freeway , the entire building is split into two adjacent masses by an expansive ‘ branding wall ’ executed in off-shutter concrete . To the north of this wall , the fairly straightforward blocks of office accommodation form the backdrop to the more complex public functions of the building . Rationally arranged , the office floors are connected into the transparent heart of the building by a sculptural spiral staircase . To the south of this wall , large cubes of space , enclosed in clear and translucent glass , showcase the life and the products of General Motors .
The branding wall , then , forms the dominant element of the southern aspect of the building , seen when approaching on the freeway from the direction of Johannesburg .
Approaching from the east , coming from Pretoria or Midrand , the staggered blocks of the main building frame a vast expanse of water set on top of the plinth of the building . New models
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