PROJECT DETAILS
Located in the most historically prominent architectural street in South Africa, President Brand Street in Bloemfontein, the Department of Public Works building houses the regional offices of the aforementioned department, accommodating 17 000m² of office space on a site approximately 3 000m² in extent.

As it could be argued that additions to a street with such a historical character could either enhance or detract from the overall context, the approach followed was to insert a contemporary building into the historical surroundings, but utilizing unifying principles observed throughout the conservation area. These include the use of sandstone and red face brick, massing, scale, plan layout, relationship to the street amongst others.

The building is clad with a sandstone curtain wall on the President Brand Street façade, and elsewhere a combination of sandstone and red face brick was used. In order to lower the scale, the street façades were scaled down, with a higher portion of the building located centrally to reduce its visual presence.

COMPLETION DATE

2011

* In joint venture with : Lebona Architects and Neethling Architects