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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
OCTOBER
2016
Number 1 Silo: Alan Gray headquarters, V&A
Waterfront, Cape Town
Relishing its role of being a ‘background’ building,
where public space and the pre-existing are
hierarchically more important than it is, the shape
and form of this corporate building are informed by
the decision to make the 1920s grain silo (and home
of a future art gallery) the dominant element in the
local context. The judges said the architects, Van
der Merwe Miszewski Architects in association with
Rick Brown Associates, had realised their intention
that “the building’s conceptual foundation and
façade resolution be informed by the integrity of the
industrial and historical V&A Waterfront buildings,
giving priority to practicality over image”. They felt
the design had achieved levels of perfection unseen
before in their oeuvre and generally in South Africa.
Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens
Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens: a shared Dutch built heritage in
South Africa
is a publication that is the culmination of
years of dedicated work. The judges felt it showed what
a rich architectural history South Africa had, how under-
researched it was and that academics of the stature of
the editors – Bakker, Clark and Fischer – could make a
contribution to all of us ‘to know our past’.