Architect and Builder Offices Retrospective | Page 617

The East and West façades consist of a composite aluminium-clad shell with articulated strip windows to allow light and views to filter into every office module . These faceted façades have a visual quality emphasised by the articulated strip windows , which transform from day to night . The flush-glazed north and south façades allow for uninterrupted views over greater Rosebank .
The backdrop to these façades is a smooth and glossy flat finish that transforms itself into the underbelly of the building . The organic vaulting architecture of the underbelly raises the building from the ground , affording users an unimpeded thoroughfare between the Gautrain Station and the shopping area .
At the heart of the building is a multi-storey enclosed , north-facing atrium fashioned to capture the sunlight filtering down into a unique fluid underbelly of the ground-floor thoroughfare . This creates a conduit for a combination of green walls and indigenous planting brought to life in executive roof gardens , podium-level gardens , and parkade-wall gardens that result in a tranquil oasis within the bustling Rosebank precinct . Suspended Meeting Pods can be viewed from the landscaped thoroughfare . The architectural intent is for the pods to be as open as possible , embedded in the glass . These pods are also cantilevered from the concrete frame . The atrium structure formed part of the glass façade , spanning over six stories and additionally it formed a part of the glass skylight structure on the atrium roof . The structure spanned large distances and had to be as slender as possible while limiting deflection .
Atrium Structural Engineering The inner – and bottom chord of the atrium vertical truss and roof truss were determined by architectural constraints . The outer chord is braced by transom beams for the façade glass , however , the inner chord had a large unbraced length due to the omission of regular knee-bracing . Similarly , the bottom chord had
Rosebank Link 617