Area’s evolving, greener skyline
Developers aim to combine architecture and functionality while applying green technologies to minimise impact on the environment
INNOVATION, particularly the kind that addresses sustainable green issues, is transforming the architectural face of Sandton, says Mike Ruttell, executive director: development at Redefine Properties, which is spearheading a series of building innovations in the area, including 90 Grayston.
“The property world is changing rapidly and we are proud to be at the forefront of this new era,” he says. “It’s all about forward-thinking architecture backed by extremely powerful, sustainable green building technology.”
Redefine won an award for commercial office development at this year’s South African Property Owners Association Innovative Excellence in Property Awards for 90 Grayston.
“The power of this building lies in its architecture and functionality. There is really nothing else like it in Johannesburg, which makes it the perfect flagship for our new development drive,” says Ruttell.
90 Grayston is a 16-storey premium-grade office building of 19,343m2 in Sandown, central Sandton. It includes 11 levels of parking — five in the basement and six above ground — achieving a parking ratio of nearly five bays per 100m2. There are nine levels of offices above an elevated atrium, and the building will have its own cafeteria.
As a 4-Star Green Star SA Office rated building, certified by the Green Building Council SA, the building, says Ruttell, “respects the environment with a combination of passive design principles and world-class green technologies to minimise the impact of the building and its ongoing use on the environment”. These include a high-efficiency ammonia chiller heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system and the harvesting of rainwater to flush toilets.
90 Grayston is just one of a number of new buildings in and around Johannesburg Redefine is involved with currently. Among these are two new future landmarks, 90 Rivonia in Sandton, due for completion imminently, and The Rosebank Towers in Rosebank that will be built by October next year.
“We want all of our buildings to stand out — and they do. We are well on our way to transforming the way that commercial building development evolves in SA. However, this goes much deeper than just a design ambition. It’s a business objective to display our industry leadership in architecture and sustainable innovation through the growth of a high-quality portfolio of iconic assets,” he says.
“We aim for a minimum of a four-star rating on every building we are involved in. This is not limited to new-builds though. Redevelopment is core to our business and a huge amount of work goes into not only ensuring our buildings are iconic, beautiful places that people want to spend time in, but also that they will remain world-class, sustainable and efficient in the long term.”
Redefine is not the only property organisation with grand green ambitions in Sandton. ALW Estates commissioned engineering, management, design, planning, project management and consulting company Aurecon to provide environmentally sustainable design (ESD) services for Atholl Towers between Katherine and Patricia streets.
Atholl Towers was developed in two phases. The first phase was completed in 2011 and comprises a 4,500m2 office building with the Volkswagen Group SA’s sales and marketing operations as tenants. The second phase, completed in April this year, consists of 10,211m2 of offices and 480 parking bays, with five basement levels.
Also an Aurecon project, the Atrium on 5th became the first building in the Liberty Group’s property portfolio to achieve a 4-Star Green Star SA Office v1 Design rating last year. Previously the Sandton Twin Towers, the property underwent an R450m refurbishment.
With interests in several 4-Star Green Star SA Office v1 Design rated Sandton buildings, Growthpoint Properties plans to grow its portfolio of Green Star SA certified buildings to 50.
In a joint venture with Zenprop, the company is working on Discovery’s new 87,000m2 head office which, built to house 5,000 employees, has been described as “the largest single commercial building in Africa”.