Architects Of Justice Architects Of Justice 2018 Review | Page 8

O
n a challenging site, Architects Of Justice (AOJ) have created a geometrically striking industrial-chic
office building which employs forthright sustainable design methodology and technology.
“In mid-2015 we were commissioned to design a new office building for Caldas Engineering, a supplier of
crusher parts to the mining industry,” says principal architect, Mike Rassmann. As Caldas had expanded
steadily over the years, their current premises in Meadowdale had become cramped and didn’t possess
good views into the yard and over their stock, something which was imperative for a company which relies
on the fact that they can dispatch stock quickly.
Caldas required more yard space (for stock storage) and more office space (to accommodate their
increasing staff complement). The company acquired a 4300m 2 rectangular property in Activia Park,
Germiston in Johannesburg, South Africa, which met their requirements for more yard space but
unfortunately did not have any quality office space on it.
“The property had limited derelict office space at the back of the site, and we had to maximise the yard
area due to the fact that every spare square metre of space would be beneficial for the client,” explains
Rassmann. Hence the starting point for the design was to locate and size the new office building, named
Rubela Park, on the site in order to maximise the yard space, while still ensuring that the new building would
have an optimal solar orientation.
This proved to be quite a challenge as the position for the access road on the east boundary and the
orientation of the site, which runs lengthways east to west, meant that laying the building out for optimal
north/solar exposure would firstly impede on the yard space and secondly reduce the street exposure of
the building. Rassmann explains that AOJ paid very close attention to, and made use of, the town planning
requirements to take advantage of the guidelines and get the maximum number of storeys in the building
in order to lay the square meterage out over more floors and thereby reduce the footprint of the building,
which in turn increased the amount of yard area.
After careful consideration and analysis it was decided to orientate the building lengthways in a north-south
direction to maximise the yard space, and place as much of the office space on the north side of the building
and locate all the service spaces to the south of the building. As the length of the structure would be facing
east and west, large windows were placed on the east façade, to maximise natural light and thereby reduce
the electrical consumption of the building (as little artificial lighting would be required to light the work
spaces).
On the west façade, high, narrow clerestory windows were strategically placed to reduce the heat gain
from the west sun in the afternoons, but to still provide a sufficient amount of additional natural light into
the offices that had to be located on this side of the building. To further improve the amount of natural light
entering the building, a mezzanine level, which allows for a generous double volume along the east façade,
was located between the ground and first floor. This double volume meant that the size of the windows
on the east façade could be maximised, flooding the ground and mezzanine floors with natural light. Direct
morning sunlight is dealt with by means of vertical louvres. “The building looks like it has a lot more glass than
it actually does,” notes Rassmann, pointing to the fact all the windows were very strategically positioned in
the design.
Two of the client’s major requests were to keep the design of the building as cost effective as possible and
to minimise the amount of maintenance required on the façade. In order to achieve this the building is
essentially a modest and efficient rectangular facebrick box, with a raw industrial interior, embellished on
the exterior only by a simple external translucent polycarbonate screen, which not only moderates solar
heat gain on the façades but also provides much needed shape and interest to the form of the building.
Following the low maintenance brief, the only paint used on the exterior of the building is on the ground
floor which is reachable without the need to set up scaffolding.
In order to take maximum advantage of South Africa’s optimal solar conditions, a photovoltaic (PV) solar
plant, for electricity generation, was installed on the roof of the building. PV electricity generation is ideal for