- A- Design brief and site considerations
The brief from the client was to design a world-class Mixed-Use development in the Foreshore District of Cape Town. There is phased approached to the development that will total on completion 200 000 sqm of usable area and 6 buildings. These 6 buildings are placed on a 7 Storey plinth: with an 8th floor central park.
The pedestrian interface on an Urban Scale is very important and therefor the ground floor has retail and restaurants. These functions surround a public piazza in the middle of the ground floor. The piazza becomes a convergence space for all the pedestrian routes crossing the site.
From the first floor to the seventh floor is a structured parking structure that provides cyclical parking for the whole development. Various ramps in and out of the structure enhance ease of movement and links up with the existing road structure of the precinct. The provision of parking also eases Cape Town’s problem with vehicular parking at present.
From ground floor to the 8th floor there are various vertical circulations to take the public up to the central park. On this 8th level there will be restaurants and amenities for both inhabitants of the building and the public. This public space is surrounded by 2 apartment buildings, 2 hotels, and 2 office buildings.
A total of 482 apartments are provided in the first phase and 482 additional in the second phase. The hotels and office buildings will follow in the subsequent phases. A 10-year development plan is foreseen to complete the whole development.
A precinct will be formed as the gateway into Cape Town where people can live, work and socialize. This development will accommodate and attract many tourists because of its location close to many attractions and the CBD.
- B-Location
The site location is where the N1- and N2 freeways join in the Cape Town CBD. Christiaan Barnard Street is on the Northwestern boundary, and this is one of the main routes in towards to Foreshore and Harbour in a North- South Direction. On the Southwestern Boundary is Hertzog Boulevard that is a main East West circulation artery.
Because of this position, the building becomes a gateway into Cape Town CBD and gives the opportunity to create a landmark iconic building to welcome people into Cape Town CBD. The development is surrounded by Office Buildings and the City Council offices to the south and west, the foreshore to the north and the harbour to the north and west.
There are certain Urban Design Guidelines that were put in place at the onset of the design process. There are no specific guidelines as to what the architecture should be, but rather setbacks of the facades, architectural elements that need to go down to the ground floor, setbacks on the ground floor layout to create public space and the provision of colonnades and covered walkways.
- C-Architecture and the use of Space
The brief from the client was to create a contemporary, urban and pedestrian friendly development. Although this development can be seen as a precinct, consisting of 6 buildings, it can be read as one building over 4 city blocks. 3 streets, Martin Hammerschlag way, Louis Gardner Street and Jack Craig Street, dissect the site and ground floor of the building in an east- west direction. The pedestrian movement at the moment is non existing and by creating an active edge along these streets, people will be pulled into the development. This east west movement is connected by a north south arcade underneath the building with a public piazza in the middle. Restaurants and retail activate all edges of the ground floor.
The vertical circulation to the 8th floor is placed within the central arcade either side of the piazza. People can easily access the 8th floor with its park, retail and restaurants. All users, including occupants of the apartments and hotels, get out of the vertical circulation on 8th floor and walk through the park and shops to another set of lifts to take them into the 6 buildings. This ensures that the urban environment is used, and a pedestrian culture encouraged as per the New Urbanism theory. Excellent views towards Table Mountain and the ocean can be experienced on the eighth floor and rooftop viewing decks in all the buildings. Various types of apartments are provided with the bigger units taking advantage of the views.
3 levels of parking basements are provided with access from all the surrounding roads.

- D-Appearance and Finish
Plaster and painted external façade.
The interior finishes are of a high standard for a robust and contemporary finish.

- E- Sustainability, Energy Conservation and Innovation

Double glazing has been allowed for majority of the building envelop, with specific performance glass used on the facades which are likely to experience the highest levels of solar insolation, or external noise generated by vehicular traffic on the elevated Nelson Mandela Boulevard (N2).

A Building Management System (BMS) has been planned for this building to monitor and optimize the use of water and electricity, due to the general water scarcity in Cape Town.

The HVAC plant is being designed on a precinct basis with a chilled water ring main, rather than solely for this phase 1 building to maximize economies of scale. Electrical consumption could be reduced by efficient used of chilled and pre-heated water, rather than separate equipment require for this purpose in each building.
Heat pump technology will provide 50% of the total water heating energy to the building, which complies with SANS 10400 pARTxa2 (Local code). The overall building complies with the requirements of SANS10400 Part XA (2011) when compared to a benchmark building of this type. This code refers to energy usage in buildings.