Construction World December 2016

Joint Winner

C

Professional Services

Highly Commended

E

MULTICHOICE CITY Multichoice, South Africa's premium broadcast provider, has recently extended its primary campus in the Randburg CBD with a brand new facility boasting a Green Building Council 5 Star Design and As Built Certification. Grosskopff Lombart Huyberechts and Associates Architects were commissioned to design a building for Multichoice that would capture this spirit and become a landmark to the communication and connectivity that Multichoice represents. Situated on the corner of Republic Road and Bram Fischer Drive in Randburg, this prime location called for a bold state- ment building. Connectivity for staff needed to be considered as Multi- choice occupy a number of buildings in the immediate vicinity. A tunnel under Bram Fischer Road and a pedestrian bridge over it create a link that seamlessly tie the existing and extended campus together. Technology that addresses sustainability has been integrated into all aspects of the building resulting in the project achieving a 5 Star Green Star SA Office Design V1 Certification. The most prominent of the elements that contributed to this rating are the pixelated glazed blind system on the front facade that is automatically controlled by the movement of the sun and the cutting edge ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) transparent tensioned roof system that spans the multivolume atrium area. Group Five were the main contractors on the construction of MultiChoice. The 96 000 m 2 building with 60 000 m 2 basement parking and plant rooms with 36 000 m 2 offices and atrium space had the makings of all the challenges for a building to be constructed in the required time. The state-of-the-art services and multiple colourful finishes required superb planning and management to complete the high quality astatically building in time. Group Five was especially proud of the safety record achieved of over a million incident free working hours and thank all involved, with a special thanks to the people

who did the physical work on site. At peak periods there were over 950 men and women working on site. The use of steel has played a vital role in emphasising the filigree detail that completes the building. The front of the building facing west on Bram Fischer Drive has a very large cantilever ‘peak cap’ roof that cantilevers out towards the street. This roof has been sculpted to ensure form follows function with a very elegant narrow leading edge. Entering the building the visitor is immediately greeted by a grand volumetric atrium space with a wonderfully elegant tubular strutted arch structure supporting air inflated ETFE cushions. The strutted arch spans order of 24 metres and its form is ideal for resisting the more dominant uplift wind forces of such a structure whilst being quite slender in form as a result of the very light in mass ETFE cushions. The fabricator for the two roofs, Tass Engineering, participated in many design workshops to resolve connections together and cranage and access had to be carefully worked out so that the atrium roof could be erected with cranes standing on the ground floor slab below albeit with props by main contractor under the outriggers. The building layout faces predominately east-west due to the natural orientation of the property, which added to the design challenge. Besides the thermally efficient glazing chosen for the facades and the deep overhangs of the roof which create much- needed shading, integrated blinds which track the sun’s movement were specified, to adapt the building to its environment and ensure comfortable working environments within throughout the day. Both greywater and rainwater harvesting systems are employed to minimise the use of potable water for uses like toilet flushing and garden irrigation. Practical specification of finishes including those with low VOC emissions, local sourcing, and reduced resource consumption such as low flow sanitary fittings , low energy use bulbs on movement sensors, solar geysers and gas stoves, were all brought to bear on the detailed design development of the building. The HVAC system makes use of a thermal storage approach which allows the manufacture of coolth at night by freezing thermal storage balls – when loads are low and energy prices are reduced – to use during the day to power the AC when the building is actually at maximum demand.

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• 5 Star Green Star SA Office Design v1 Certified Building • 5 Star Green Star SA Office As Built v1 Certified Building • Winner: Steel Awards 2015 – Architectural and Cladding Category • Winner: Sapoa best corporate building 2016

Project information • Company entering: GLH Architects • Client: Multichoice/NMSCom Properties

• Start date: 2012 • End date: 2015

• Main contractor: Group Five • Architect: GLH Architects • Project manager: BTK Pretoria • Consulting engineer: PURE Consulting • Project value: R1-billion

Construction WORLD

DECEMBER • 2016