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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
APRIL
2016
ON TIME
– restrictions notwithstanding
PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS
The project entailed the building of
a new four-storey commercial office
block in Nieuw-Muckleneuk for
developers, Duncharl Investments,
a client for which J.C. van der Linde & Venter
Projects had frequently worked for in the past.
The Tram Street building provides floor space
of about 1 200 m
2
on a stand of 1 276 m
2
–
indicative of how densely built-up the precinct
has become.
Challenges
Stefan van Wyk, contracts director at MBA
North member, J.C. van der Linde & Venter
Projects , says the main challenge that faced
the building contractors was extremely
restricted access to the site in Tram Street.
“Access was so limited we had to make
solution is a compact plan form with vertical
extension up to the limit of height restrictions.
The main building mass is elevated off ground
level by columns to create space for parking
underneath the building without the need
for a basement. The concrete columns are
expressed as vertical fins on the elevations
with a fair-face finish.”
Malan says a stand-out feature on the
elevations is the vertically emphasised glazed
staircase and concrete lift shaft which forms
the services core of the building. The vertical
core effectively links the ground floor parking
level with three storeys of offices and the roof
space above to which all the tenants have
access for relaxation and informal
office functions.
“Each floor has lettable office space on
either side of the core. This configuration
allows for tenant flexibility, as the two
office areas per floor can function separately
or as one. The basic open plan office areas
received internal layouts in drywalling to
suit tenant requirements.”
Because space for soft landscaping on
ground level is limited, custom designed
irrigated planter boxes were spaced over the
north and south elevations.
Pretoria Master Builders, J.C. van der Linde & Venter
Projects, has completed a major contract for the
construction of a sustainable new office block at
273 Tram Street in Pretoria.
use of a self-erecting tower crane. Such a
self-erecting crane ‘folds up’ upon itself in
sections when being prepared for transport.
We were able to overcome the limited access
to site by bringing this folded up crane on to
the building site and then erecting it there for
our construction work,” Van Wyk explained.
Among the other challenges J.C. van der
Linde & Venter Projects faced for this contract
included poor soil conditons which called for
the provision of piles at an average depth of
7 metres to provide suitable foundation for
the column footings. The architects, Jeremie
Malan Architects, specified state-of-the-art
stoneware tiles, the Agrob Buchtal Plural
Plus range, which had to be imported from
Germany which meant that importation
schedules had to accurately match construc-
tion requirements to avoid disruptions in
building work.
Van Wyk adds: "Our construction
programme also had to be carefully co-ordi-
nated to allow for the installa-
tion of a lift in the four-storey
structure. As the new office block
is adjacent to a residential area,
noisy construction activities after
17:00 were totally prohibited and
we had to ensure that maximum
productivity was achieved during
office hours. We nevertheless
managed to meet schedules so
efficiently that the client also
engaged us to handle the shopfit-
ting of the various floors as these
were rented out – an aspect not
in the original contract. Despite
the extra work, we completed the
contract in eight months, just one
month more than stipulated in
the original contract.”
A total of 720 m
3
of concrete
at a strength of 30 MPa was used
with Class 1 formwork to ensure
superior surface finishes.
Architecturally
celebrated
Jeremie Malan Architects in
Pretoria won the Pretoria Insti-
tute of Architecture's
2015
Award for Commercial and Brand-
ing
f or 273 Tram Street.
Malan says achieving
maximum rentable building
area on a small site was a major
design challenge. “Our design
The bulk of 273 Tram Street's office windows are
orientated north or south and are sheltered by
expansive aluminium filigree shading panels.
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