Housing in Southern Africa October-November 2016

Bricks & Paving

infrastructure

grew, we had to move 24 000 clay stock bricks up to the next level of construction.” “We chose Ocon Brick because we knew their clay stock bricks to be of a high quality and that the Ocon Brick team would be available even at short notice, as we micro-managedcrucial product deliv- ery schedules to meet the restraints at site. The Ocon Brick team met the deadlines and delivered at 6am after being ordered the previous day. It is that kind of team work that we sought and received for the Central Square site.” Ocon Brick supplied 5 208 000 for the Central Square residential blocks, “Construction commenced inDecem- ber 2015 and is due for completion mid-2017. With 52% of the project already complete; there are a further nine floors to be constructed and 17 000 m² of concrete parking decks and walkways. “Demand for educa- tion facilities inDundee has increased drastically over the past few years with the growth in population and ris- ing unemployment levels. To address this imbalance, Majuba FET College partnered with Endumeni Munici- pality to establish Dundee campus at Mpati. As part of the Umzinyathi Community Education Project, En- dumeni Municipality donated land to Majuba FET College at the entrance of Dundee for the establishment of Dundee Technology Centre (DTC). Tjaart van der Walt, Head Architect of LVDWArchitects, explained that the soil was particularly rocky. “We opted for amore conventional design in an effort to save on costs. Brick construction with face brick- work fulfilled all the requirements of this college infrastructure. The neu- tral colours of the face brick blended in well with the surrounding environ- ment,” explained Van der Walt. The bricks were laid in a conven- tional stretcher bond pattern while the sturdy herringbone pattern was selected for the pavers. Pattern work was included in areas of the face brick façade to express its African context. T h e b r i c k w o r k i n c l u d e d

Musa Shangase

combinations of Corobrik’s range of Nebraska Travertine and Country Classic Travertine face bricks for the maintenance free facades, with Champagne andBurgundy pavers be- ing used to compliment the buildings aesthetic and surrounds. According to Shangase, “The choice of colours and textures work particularly well in the environment. The life-time cost-saving benefits of the face bricks is just one of themany attributes that will serve this project well into the future”. ■

Central Square Shangase adds that the new Ma- juba FET College state-of-the-art college environment has set a new standard for learning institutions. The campus comprises a gatehouse, administration offices, double-storey blocks of 2 200m² each, an examcen- tre, resource centre, student centre

O con Brick has supplied clay stock bricks for the multi-bil- lion rand mixed-use Central Square development, in Sandton’s richest precinct. Shawn Herbst, Site Agent for Mota-engil Construction explains that Sandton has grown so much over the past five years and civil engineers have faced the challenges of product storage spae on site and the limited street widths. This makes the need for stock delivery scheduling a critical requirement. Herbst explains, “With the narrow roads of Morningside, Sandton, the developers need to enable as much traffic flow-through as possible with- out causing congestion. Large trucks loadedwith hundreds of brick pallets needed to be offloaded quickly. Not only did we have extremely tight delivery times, limited storage space as the Central Square development

still to be completed,” says Ocon Brick consultant, Lucas Steyn. “We are fortunate that due to our large manufacturing capability we are able to hold sufficient stock at any given point in time enabling us to meet our customer’s specific time-critical delivery requirements.” ■

October/November 2016