elements of green building incorporated . For example , the re-use of the existing structure ( historical and electrical warehouse ) and re-use of some of the existing gum pole flooring from when the building was an electrical warehouse .
With the building being more of a “ street ”, the building is able to make use of natural ventilation in the majority of the space , with mechanical ventilation in the exhibition , meeting room and commercial areas . The space also promotes an enhanced indoor environmental quality – with plenty of natural light , access to views , acoustic separation between the various building uses , and the use of low VOC paints . Other sustainable initiatives include LED lighting , universal access , water metering and recycling waste storage .
ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT ’ S COMMENT Heinrich Wolff , James Pierre du Plessis and Adam Clemens of Wolff Architects called Mackenzie Hoy Consulting Acoustics Engineers ( aka “ Machoy ”) and asked for acoustics and noise control input on a revamp of the Blue Shed and Workshop 17 building at the Waterfront , Cape Town . It had occurred to the architects that the buildings housed an overhead crane gantry , rated at some tonnes . This implied that if the building structure could take the side force of a gantry crane , then the building could be fitted with a mezzanine floor , suspended on cables . If you then removed the walls at either end of the building , you get a new building open to pedestrian traffic , double volume , 100 m long skylight , an astonishing massive hanging floor , 150 traders stalls , 1,000m 2 of exhibitions space with windows overlooking a busy working drydock where metal shot blasting of ships is common .
In short , in terms of acoustics and noise control , you get every single problem relating to acoustics and noise which a building can have : Double volumes are big and echo rich with conversation stopping and market noise enhancing properties . Skylights are great for light , and let in outside noise ; massive hanging floors can resonate and resonate until a few foot falls sound like the steps of an approaching hippo and then , of course , there is the outside noise of the Robinson drydock where they remove paint from ships using steel shot air-blasted onto the hull of the dry-docked ship and which sounds just like steel shot air-blasted .. etc etc , only louder .
Machoy Senior Engineer ( Acoustics ), Rachel Viljoen , was given the project and provided solutions to all of the issues . Particularly innovative was the use of Marmoleum Decibel vinyl floor on the mezzanine deck which provided both footfall and resonance control of the hanging floor as well and sound absorption for the double volume . The use of Gyptone Ringitone plasterboard further solved many of the acoustics problems . Noise
from the ground floor traders was also controlled by specialised absorber panels ; however , control is not 100 % since budget issues saw a number of acoustic recommendations being discarded . However , the result is still very , very good . First prize to Wolff Architects for the concept design and clever insight into the mezzanine support . Special rosette to structural engineer , Tom Linder , who designed the floor suspension and , when Machoy asked what the floor resonant frequency was , he knew the answer and it was right . From Blue Shed and Workshop to Watershed .
The Watershed 457