MADIBA’S CORNER

 

 

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MADIBA’S CORNER FOR FOR URBAN DYNAMICS AFRICA  | WINDHOEK

DEIDRÉ DE WAAL ARCHITECT

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Deidré de Waal Architect was involved with the initial alterations and additions of the original buildings on this site. In 2015 we were instructed by the owners to design a new office block, fully optimizing the allowable bulk. But they had one overriding requirement – the design had to be modern and totally different than the existing buildings on the site. They wanted something not seen before.

The available site was long and narrow – facing the very busy Nelson Mandela Avenue and an equally busy intersection. The available site area determined to a large extent the shape of the new building. A large Kameeldoorn tree on the pavement next to the new building could not be removed and we worked very carefully around it. We worked closely with Nik Moroff and the subsequent design was a building consisting of 2 rectangular bases 5,000 x 9,440, housing 2 small offices, supporting a 38,250 x 5,760

First Floor open plan office area, cantilevering 14 meters, with a glass box board room and roof garden on the Top Floor. We opted to keep the architecture extremely simple, as the structure of the building became an engineering exercise. The steel structure was kept visible, for the inhabitants to experience the way in which the building was put together.

The building quickly became a strong presence on this busy corner, somehow sheltering the farm style small offices at the back from the busy street, but also interacting with the traffic and pedestrians on Nelson Mandela avenue.