Construction World December 2023

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 socialise. This development will accommodate and attract many tourists because of its location close to many attractions and the CBD. 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 six buildings, it can be read as one building over four city blocks. Three 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

HARBOUR ARCH

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. 

T he brief from the client was to design a world class Mixed Use development in the Foreshore District of Cape Town. There is a phased approached to the development that will total, on completion, 200 000 m of usable area and six buildings. These six buildings are placed on a seven storey plinth; with an eighth floor central park. The pedestrian interface on an Urban Scale is very important and therefore 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 structured parking that provides cyclical parking for the whole development. Various ramps in and out of the structure enhance ease of movement and link 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 eighth floor there are various vertical circulations to take the public up to the central park. On this eighth level there will be restaurants and amenities for both inhabitants of the building and the public. This public space is surrounded by two apartment buildings, two hotels, and two office buildings.

PROJECT INFORMATION

• Company entering: Bentel Associates International • Client: AMDEC • Main Contractor: AMDEC • Architect: Bentel Associates International • Principal Agent: Orion • Project Manager: Amdec • Quantity Surveyor: D’Arcy Hedding

81

22 nd Best Projects Awards 2023