Construction World December 2017

WATERWAY HOUSE

The newly completed Waterway House is the first phase of the new mixed-use Canal District, under development at Cape Town’s bustling V&A Waterfront. The Canal District creates a gateway for the Waterfront and aims to integrate it with adjacent city neighbourhoods – both via the canal running from the CTICC to the V&A’s Alfred Basin, and new pedestrian movement routes along Dock Road and into Prestwich Street. Development in this district will also include Battery Park, a new city park, around the remnants of the historic Amsterdam Battery, with canal side shops and cafes, as well as residential apartments. Situated on Dock Road, the key access route into the V&A from Cape Town’s Central Business District, Waterway House sits on a narrow linear site just over 200 metres long, and around 45 metres wide, between Dock Road and the canal. It creates a gateway both to the new Canal District, and to the V&A as a whole. The roof of the basement forms a common podium over which the building is then divided into two halves. As Dock Road dips towards the midpoint of the site, the podium appears to elevate itself out of the ground, a condition which also occurs consistently along the canal edge. Rock that was excavated out of the basement has been used to clad the raised podium along the canal edge. Although actually separate structures, these two buildings share a common design language and have similar, mirrored floorplates, which are adapted at each end to the particular constraints of the north and south site boundaries. The two buildings are coupled at the centre of the site by a suspended and semi-transparent link bridge on the second and third floors. This bridge and the space below allows a view corridor from Table Bay to the Noon Gun on Signal Hill. Directly below the bridge is the vehicular access to the parking basement, and beyond this is a bridge over the canal to connect Waterway House to the rest of the Canal District. Each building is also fragmented by generous entrances recessed into their respective fa ç ades along both Dock Road and canal sides, thus breaking the buildings up into two further segments. The final articulation is reminiscent of a train with a series of carriages, reducing its apparent mass and length. The retail space on the ground floor is set back from the office floors above, creating a more hospitable pedestrian environment and Waterway House is a substantial new office development located at the gateway to Cape Town’s V&AWaterfront, the city’s premier tourist attraction and new business address of choice.

also contributing to the perception of the office space floating above the ground. Retail spaces are contained within continuous full height shopfronts with a clear height of 4,5 metres, while slim perimeter columns are externalised on the Dock Road and the far end fa ç ades.

PROJECT INFORMATION • Company entering: dhk • Client: V&A Waterfront • Architects: dhk • Main contractor: NMC Construction • Project manager & principal agent: AECOM • Quantity surveyor: BTKM • Civil and structural engineers: Nadeson Consulting Services • Mechanical engineer: Triocon Consulting Services • Façade engineer: LH Consulting Engineers • Sustainability consultant: Agama Energy • Landscape architect: OVP Associates

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