The project is a new Blower House Complex on the Athlone Wastewater Treatment Works just outside Cape Town. On Ground floor the complex consists of a large blower room with its Motor Control Centre (MCC room) and air plenums, a MCC for the future upgrade’s reactors, locker rooms for the ground staff, a laundry room, and stores. The nature of the first floor is more clerical and includes the control room, SCADA station, offices, boardroom, laboratory, and staff amenities. Connected at an angle to the blower house is the new electrical building which houses four large diesel generators and their associated plant to run the whole plant in case of a power outage.
Clifton Terraces apartments on Victoria Road, Cape Town, designed by SAOTA, makes a striking but sensitively integrated architectural statement in the area’s distinctive cliffside setting.
The development recedes from the street in a series of stepped, articulated terraces that follow the site’s natural contours, boasting panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and local landmarks such as Table Mountain and Clifton’s series of sheltered beaches.
SAOTA Project Team: Philip Olmesdahl, Mark Bullivant, Edward Peinke, Jo Nel, Christian Liebenberg, Melissa de Freitas, Peter Harel & Lichumile Monakali
The official name we gave this project is Two-Close-Between, the name is derived from the actual constraints of the site’s surroundings along with the functionality of the building.
The drivers for this project were problem solving privacy aspects whilst preserving views. This is a dual living home built on a small 450m2 site, snug between two existing properties. The main objective was to retain the views of the ocean whilst maximizing privacy between the dual living and also from the surrounding homes, which are situated around all four sides of the site.
35 Lower Long, an elegant 86-metre glass-clad office tower, has recently been completed which will invigorate Cape Town’s emerging financial and hospitality district. The building, developed by Abland Property Developers and designed by dhk Architects, is characterised by a singular sculpted massing which is transformed via dynamic glazed planes that extend seamlessly over the office and parking levels. The two main corners of the building are chamfered towards the roofline and soar upwards, forming a striking wing-like effect – resulting in a distinctive, non-orthogonal addition to Cape Town’s skyline.
32 on Kloof, a heritage building situated along popular Kloof Street in Cape Town, has undergone a metamorphosis. Originally constructed in 1922 by prominent architecture firm Parker & Forsyth for the United Tobacco Companies Limited (UTC), the building once housed the company’s administration department. Transformed by multidisciplinary design studio, dhk Architects, 32 on Kloof’s rich history has been respected via a contemporary aesthetic that references, rather than replicates, its existing heritage.
When Jim Brett and Ed Gray decided to launch a sister property to their exclusive-use Villa Maison Noir in Hout Bay, Cape Town, it was with the intention of creating yet another sanctuary-like space that was inspired and informed by the natural beauty of the bordering Oudekraal Nature Reserve and surrounding areas. To bring this vision to fruition, the couple earmarked a plot of land right next door to Villa Maison Noir and dreamed of replacing the drab 1970s-style building housed on the site with something much more memorable.
C Offices is the fit out design for the executive offices of a multinational company based in Cape Town. The design distorts the rigid and unfunctional given layout to create dynamic environments in constant relationship with each other. The aim to break the traditional office scheme of isolated rooms is reached by the introduction of comfortable co-working spaces and common rooms.
A meticulous research on materials and cladding solutions has been carried out together with a careful study of light and shadows to provide the new environment with a sophisticated but comfortable value.
OKHA’s latest interior project, Clifton 301, is a seasonal two-bedroom apartment in a sophisticated contemporary complex designed by SAOTA. Flanked on either side by Table Mountain’s legendary Twelve Apostles, it looks out over breath-taking panoramic views of the Cape Atlantic Ocean and is in equal parts luxurious getaway, relaxed coastal retreat and entertainer’s dream.
The architects designed the complex with deliberately pared-down, monochromatic interior shells.
In the heart of Cape Town’s bustling CBD, the property at 118 St George’s mall is not one building, but a consolidation of two. A “Cape Edwardian” building, estimated to have been completed in the early 1940s, stands on the corner of St Georges Mall and Longmarket Street, and is flanked by an Art Deco counterpart which was designed by the architectural firm Walgate & Elsworth, who designed the Table Mountain Cableway stations, for the offices of the United Building Society and completed c1938. While the characteristic external elements of the existing buildings have remained unchanged, like the Edwardian teak windows, the Art Deco granite façade and the noteworthy bronze portal doors framing the entrance, the interiors were sadly destroyed in the decades of reuse and reinvention of the space.
Accessed from Kloof Road, which winds along the western slopes of Lion’s Head, this site is positioned in the wind-protected suburb of Clifton. Years before any development was introduced, this slope was conceivably covered by indigenous forest and fynbos. Today, however, the area is developed and enjoys spectacular views over the sandy beaches, boulder outcrops, and Twelve Apostles mountains towards the south and sunset views over the Atlantic Ocean.
The first aspect of the project that required addressing was the steep slope that would have to be excavated to accommodate the structure. The home was conceived as an arrangement of staggered blocks that rise along the side of the mountain, with the upper, private levels becoming appropriately shielded from both visibility and street-level noise.
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