Housing in Southern Africa October 2015

Brickwork revitalises Sitting aside Kings Park Stadium and near the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban’s Lion Match Factory holds its own as one of thewarmcity’smemorable architectural landmarks.

P roperty development and constr uction group, JT Ross, bought the 90-year-old site more than 10 years ago when Lion Match moved its manufacturing op- erations to Gauteng. Rejuvenation of the site, on Durban’s inner city fringe, began under the guidance of Dean Jay Architects. Listed as a heritage site, construc- tion of the new buildings and refur- bishment of the existing buildings was carefully monitored with the architects opting to blend the old and new buildings seamlessly, yet with pertinent distinguishing features. Sarah Fourie of Dean Jay Archi- tects, said the bricks used in the

refurbishment were a mixture of reused old bricks from one of the demolished warehouses, alongside Corobrik’s range of terracotta satin face bricks and burgundy pavers. “We wanted to match the new bricks with the older ones while playing with different brickwork styles throughout,” she explained. “We highlighted the newadditions as obviously modern rather than trying to repeat the traditional design. While

with the new contemporary addi- tions, we have used the same colours and materials that were used in the original buildings.” Allin Dangers, Director of Corobrik, said it was rewarding for Corobrik to have its products involved in redefining the spaces of this beauti- ful Durban landmark. He said the terracotta satin face bricks were the perfect choice to blendwith the older bricks and the variation in brickwork

October 2015