Boardwalk Sheds
The site for this project is located on Olympus Drive in the east of Pretoria. It is adjacent to the Plantland the Wilds Garden Centre on the corner of Atterbury Road and Olympus Drive. The majority of the surrounding area comprises of residential complexes and educational facilities. It borders on the start of the Faerie Glen small holdings on the way to the well-known Silver Lakes residential area.
Boardwalk Sheds is a +- 4000 m² shopping centre with a Pick n Pay Supermarket, PnP Clothing and PnP Liquor as well as a Crazy Plastics and Crazy pets. This will offer the community a convenient local neighbourhood centre to shop in. The current context and location were considered and investigated by the developer. This informs a possibility of the center forming part of a larger commercial development in future.
Currently the site has an existing warehouse building with parking shared with the Garden Centre. One of the challenges for the site on its own, is to accommodate ample parking as well as a functioning delivery yard for the anchor. The fall of the site contributed to the delivery yard problem to find a flat enough piece of land to do deliveries on grade. The only position that makes commercial sense is right in the back corner of the site where the site gradient is at its steepest. A professional team of engineers and architects put their heads together to come with a workable plan. Vehicular access and movement on the site were an important consideration to enhance ease of traffic flow. Due to the limited size of the site, while planning the building, the architect was faced with another challenge; to design a building with a feasible lettable area, enough parking and the workable delivery yard. The answer was a very functional and economic layout. Possible future expansion had to also be taken into account while planning the development.
Due to the fact that the site is situated in the Olympus small holdings area, a minimalist “farm style” architecture was considered. The structure of the building is an industrial warehouse with a contemporary interpretation of the pitched roof farm shed. This speaks to the vernacular of the area, historically and now. The external finishes will be a combination of metal- and timber cladding with well-placed lighting and greenery. The construction of a steel structure also attributes to a quicker assembly time of the structure. With the brickwork only going up to a lower height and the rest being steel cladding also increase the construction time. This has financial implications for the developer so future tenants can start trading sooner.
The client wanted to develop a contemporary building that is easily accessible by patrons with the convenience of enough parking. Together with a supermarket and liquor store, clothing store, pet shop and household items, there will also be a coffee shop with outside seating. This offers the visitor a one stop shopping experience but also space to socialise.
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