Westend Building Achieves Design 4-Star Green Star Rating

Westend Building C, part of the modern Westend office development in Centurion, received its 4-Star Green Star SA Design certification from the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) at a historic moment in time, just weeks before South Africa went into lockdown.

With a usable area of 6 214sqm, Building C is the third of six buildings to be developed by Abland Property Developers in the Westend Office Park.

The project architects were MWLF and project sustainability aspects were handled by Solid Green Consulting.

Grant Silverman, marketing director of the developer, says it is “essential that all its developments are designed in the most efficient way possible to be both good for the environment and reduce the occupation costs for the tenants that occupy these buildings upon completion.”

Shared concept, individual identity

Jeremy Williams, architects director, explains that the design themes started in the development’s first building are evolving as subsequent buildings are developed. “The concept is a family of buildings that share a DNA, but with each building having a unique identity that responds to the movement of time and trends as the park evolves,” he says. “The buildings are designed economically to have efficient floor plates and to be able to accommodate a variety of tenants, with individual facade articulation creating design interest and highlighting the positive and negative forms of each structure.”

The 6-storey Building C has a rectilinear floor plate with a central core that allows lobby access to 4 flexible subdivisions of 325sqm per floor. Williams adds that the ground floor of the building contains a recessed parking level, forming a base upon which the projecting office floors and ‘floating cubes’ of white structure rest. “These floating elements are eroded and cut into with windows and balconies to articulate the form through a play of solid and void.