GHO is already a landmark in Mauritius as it has created a completely new bench mark for commercial office buildings on the island. Its simple form veiled in filtered facades, offers an immediacy and a thoroughly recognisable quality which projects a visually powerful image in the landscape. Apart from being the first Green-star rated office building in the Indian Ocean Islands, the sustainability aspects of the project are functionally imbedded, very efficient and legible. GHO’s interiors are beautifully crafted, warm and inviting, highlighted by the dramatic atrium and these layered spaces create an unprecedented authentic fusion of Mauritian and Africa culture. Collectively, these aspects have not been been achieved previously in a building located in Mauritius or Southern Africa
GRIT Head Office is the first phase of The Precinct which is the corporate headquarters of GRIT Real Estate Income Group, an award-winning, women-lead pan-African real estate company listed in Mauritius and London. GRIT delivers impact driven real estate developments across the African continent and its philosophy goes beyond buildings and the built environment, to initiate collective social investment programmes. These leverage the efforts of the family of partnerships surrounding GRIT to both empower and celebrate the people of Africa
The brief for GHO was to create a home for the company to overtly reflect its roots in the African Continent and the African experience. The story of the experiences gained nearly a decade ago, had to be translated into core design descriptives - resilient, tough, agile and robust. Conceptually, three notions physically seeded the key parts of the GHO design solution - heart , hive and skin:
HEART: this is a space - the seat of energy - the atrium
HIVE: this is a place and an object - the embedded piece of grit
SKIN: this is the visible fabric of the building - the materials, surfaces, textures and colours
At the core of the concept was the desire to capture a special African spirit, a quality which delivered an immediacy reflecting the special quality of the company and one which was inviting, provocative and memorable.
Part of a larger complex to be developed in phases, this office enjoys significant exposure to the M2. With its pivotal position, the building capitalises on its corner situation and ultimately will form one of three built components set in a verdant landscape. This landscape will shade and envelope open parking set on the site’s periphery, providing a significant number of bays for convenient business parking. The office precinct enjoys a secure environment with controlled access and will ultimately benefit from a large central landscaped park in future phases of development. This space will offer all tenants a remarkable working precinct with both a visual and social focus centred on wellness.
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