SA Affordable Housing January - February 2019 // Issue: 74 | Page 24

PROJECT
Homely, intimate and private
apartments for Tuks students
Apartments on William, first conceived way back in 2013 with
Caliber Properties and its partners, is a sure hit considering student
accommodation is like hen’s teeth.
By Warren Robertson | Images by Caliber Properties
The design is modern and stylish with a focus on the needs of the students.
P
laced on four stands directly opposite the University
of Pretoria and next door to a proposed bus rapid
transit (BRT) station, Apartments on William are
located on the south-eastern corner of Lynnwood Road and
William Street in central Pretoria.
The William was conceived to be ‘a modern and
structurally sound building that comprise the maximum
number of practical but affordable student apartments as
well as certain related common facilities’. It was an
important part of the brief that the architect design the
apartments based on ‘unique and intuitive design concepts
and principles’.
The design was principally for affordable student
accommodation and had to consider the limitations and
rights of the future student tenants, with the intention to
provide maximum privacy for each student who has their
own detailed, designed fully furnished and functional
compact room.
Students were also to share bathroom facilities with a
maximum of one other student.
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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019
In the end the decision was made to create an intimate,
homely student living atmosphere by grouping small
numbers of students in the various apartments. Common
facilities such as a central study hall, various common
recreation areas, a kiosk, braai areas on the roof, a common
laundry as well as admin offices were added to enhance life
for the students at the apartment block.
The building comprises of various blocks, varying in
height from ground floor plus four storeys to ground floor
plus seven storeys. The basement of each building contains
parking, storage and common services (electricity, hot
water heat pumps). The ground floor is where tenants find
the two pedestrian entrances as well as the main vehicle
entrance, the kiosk, the admin offices, part of the common
study hall, parking bays and outdoor living areas. The rest
of the common study hall extends onto the first floor, which
is also partially made up of accommodation units. The rest
of the building comprises accommodation.
Some of higher blocks have concrete roofs which include
outdoor living areas, braais as well as a drying yard for
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