The decision to design a brand-new building as opposed to remodeling and extending the old one was a great point of departure to design a building to position itself as an anchoring point within the edge of Cape Town’s skyline. The 86-meter glass building is separated into two parts, however when viewing it from across the street one cannot easily distinguish where parking ends and where office space begins.
The use of glass cladding was done well enough to deter the eye from separating the two. Most buildings within the precinct maintain strict lines, however, this building expresses a diversion from the straight edges of a glazed façade and instead, the edges are carefully chamfered. This approach seemed to cater to both the inside use of the building and the outside, where this effect was most visible.
Evident in the building was a play of light where we experienced walking around the building and on one of the top floor spaces, on a very warm late afternoon, made one forget that the building sits on a west facing, and for a glass building, one would think of the heat gain being a deterring factor of enjoying the spaces that the building has to offer, on the westside. Without air conditioning or any open windows, the spaces were comfortable to occupy, this can only mean one thing, the building’s response and to its site climatic conditions were well taken into consideration.
Alongside comfort, on one of the highest floors, the building beautifully captures a 360-degree view of the ocean in front of it, the city, and the mountains behind it.