Construction World April 2016

ON TIME – restrictions notwithstanding PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS

Pretoria Master Builders, J.C. van der Linde & Venter Projects, has completed a major contract for the construction of a sustainable new office block at 273 Tram Street in Pretoria.

solution is a compact plan form with vertical extension up to the limit of height restrictions. The main building mass is elevated off ground level by columns to create space for parking underneath the building without the need for a basement. The concrete columns are expressed as vertical fins on the elevations with a fair-face finish.” Malan says a stand-out feature on the elevations is the vertically emphasised glazed staircase and concrete lift shaft which forms the services core of the building. The vertical core effectively links the ground floor parking level with three storeys of offices and the roof space above to which all the tenants have access for relaxation and informal office functions. “Each floor has lettable office space on either side of the core. This configuration allows for tenant flexibility, as the two office areas per floor can function separately or as one. The basic open plan office areas received internal layouts in drywalling to suit tenant requirements.” Because space for soft landscaping on ground level is limited, custom designed irrigated planter boxes were spaced over the north and south elevations.

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The project entailed the building of a new four-storey commercial office block in Nieuw-Muckleneuk for developers, Duncharl Investments,

use of a self-erecting tower crane. Such a self-erecting crane ‘folds up’ upon itself in sections when being prepared for transport. We were able to overcome the limited access to site by bringing this folded up crane on to the building site and then erecting it there for our construction work,” Van Wyk explained. Among the other challenges J.C. van der Linde & Venter Projects faced for this contract included poor soil conditons which called for the provision of piles at an average depth of 7 metres to provide suitable foundation for the column footings. The architects, Jeremie Malan Architects, specified state-of-the-art stoneware tiles, the Agrob Buchtal Plural Plus range, which had to be imported from Germany which meant that importation schedules had to accurately match construc- tion requirements to avoid disruptions in building work. Van Wyk adds: "Our construction programme also had to be carefully co-ordi-

a client for which J.C. van der Linde & Venter Projects had frequently worked for in the past. The Tram Street building provides floor space of about 1 200 m 2 on a stand of 1 276 m 2 – indicative of how densely built-up the precinct has become. Challenges Stefan van Wyk, contracts director at MBA North member, J.C. van der Linde & Venter Projects , says the main challenge that faced the building contractors was extremely restricted access to the site in Tram Street. “Access was so limited we had to make

The bulk of 273 Tram Street's office windows are orientated north or south and are sheltered by expansive aluminium filigree shading panels.

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nated to allow for the installa- tion of a lift in the four-storey structure. As the new office block is adjacent to a residential area, noisy construction activities after 17:00 were totally prohibited and we had to ensure that maximum productivity was achieved during office hours. We nevertheless managed to meet schedules so efficiently that the client also engaged us to handle the shopfit- ting of the various floors as these were rented out – an aspect not in the original contract. Despite the extra work, we completed the contract in eight months, just one month more than stipulated in the original contract.” A total of 720 m 3 of concrete at a strength of 30 MPa was used with Class 1 formwork to ensure superior surface finishes. Architecturally celebrated Jeremie Malan Architects in Pretoria won the Pretoria Insti- tute of Architecture's 2015 Award for Commercial and Brand- ing f or 273 Tram Street. Malan says achieving maximum rentable building area on a small site was a major design challenge. “Our design

CONSTRUCTION WORLD APRIL 2016

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