Century City Square in South Africa gets modern look

Century City Square in South Africa gets modern look

A brain-child of Rabie Property Group, Century City Square is part of the flagship project of the larger Century City development which is highly expanding the residential, commercial and retail industry of the area.

Construction started in May 2014, with completion of the Square scheduled for June this year. The area will comprise among other things a 1200-seat conference centre as well as 12 meeting rooms located around a business class lounge; a 125-bedroom hotel; The Annex made of 3 500sqm of offices occupying four floors above the conference centre; The Matrix, a mult-purpose building with three-storeys of offices, retail/showrooms and 51 residential apartments occupying another three-storeys; The Apex which is eight storeys high is made up of 7 900sqm of offices, restaurants, bistros and coffee shops as well as a six-floor structured parking building and basement parking garage for 1 330 parking bays.

Paolo Viotti, director of VIVID Architects, said that the Century City Square would inject new energy and life to the entire Bridgeway precinct.

In planning the development, Viotti and the team chose the Corobrik’s range of timeless facebricks and pavers, because of their aesthetic qualities, as well as the economic benefits that are attached to them.

The Cape Stormberg Travertine facebrick was used as an accent facebrick which exposed and recessed panels, to highlight the ‘floating’ lighter brick facades. For The Apex office tower, which has always been seen as a slick, sheer glass façade, Viotti and the team wanted to offset the buildings in the surrounding in terms of architectural design so facebrick was selected to achieve this contemporary contrast.

To fit into the façade design, 19 500 Natural Earth 65 mm pavers were incorporated, while 73 mm De Hoop pavers were added to link the design with the entire Century City sidewalk specifications. A herringbone pattern was used for all paving to handle the constant movement.
He added the whole scheme has been designed as an urban anchor, offering the type of modern architecture that characterises the urban realm of square and street and square rather than vehicles.

Apart from its modern architectural design, the Century City Square scheme will be submitted to the Green Building Council of South Africa for a Green Star rating and is in fact a pilot project for a new mixed use rating tool.

Christie van Niekerk the Corobrik Western Cape Manager, said the use of facebrick in this iconic structure proved the product’s qualities of durability and aesthetics.
Van Niekerk further said, in addition, the thermal features of facebrick further articulated the development’s environmental elements as it negated the need for artificial heating and cooling.
He said the colour-fast, skid quality also ensured a year-round ‘new look’ while keeping pedestrians safe.