SA Affordable Housing January - February 2020 // ISSUE: 80 | Page 25

PROJECT
saving as far as possible. Corbett concedes Waterfall-style
energy saving design elements are less easy to implement
in a dense affordable housing scenario than spacious
luxury homes, because buildings shade each other. It also
installs aluminium windows and doors which are less
draughty than steel. Apart from solar energy and heat
pumps, ducts are designed so as to minimise the distance
from heat pump to mixers, reducing heat loss, as well as
reducing the potential for tampering and damage. All pipes
are HDPE, he says, as plastic can handle greater pressure
than copper.
Century commenced life as a pure developer but has
since diversified into almost all aspects of construction,
undertaking approximately 40% of all the work it
develops, says Corbett. “That is mostly because
we couldn’t get the quality we wanted.” What
it doesn’t do is specialist construction work
such as clinics, schools and malls.
SCOPE OF WORK
The project commenced in January 2019,
with a completion date of December
2020 – and approximately 600 (at the
time of writing) units are complete and
occupied. “The design requires that
each block be different with a unique
elevation to avoid it being a sea of
buildings all looking the same.” There
are drawing plans of nine different
elevations which are intermingled: some
with brick balustrades, some steel, some
with sheet cladding, some with face-
brick and others with stepped roofs. It
doesn’t cost more, says Corbett, because
it’s in the design phase.
This is a major differentiator from
many affordable housing developments
where every block is identical, making
for an impersonal living space. Instead,
The Parks aims to achieve a ‘village’
feel. Century across the road from
the estate casts its own precast
panels for the buildings enabling
The design requires that each block be different
with a unique elevation to avoid it being a sea of
buildings all looking the same.
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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2020
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