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Gutenberg Plaza is located in the Windhoek CBD and
is bounded on the east by Werner List Street, an active and
congested vehicular thoroughfare which crosses under the
commercially active Post Street Mall. The site is however isolated
from the nearby Post Street Mall by a multi-storey municipal parking
lot immediately to the north and is delimited on its southern and
western boundaries by Gutenberg Platz, a small pedestrian shopping
precinct. Future plans to upgrade this precinct and link it via a
pedestrian corridor to Cymot, Wernhill Park a block to the west and
to the municipal parkade, required consideration during the planning
of the new economics.
Together with Windhoek’s climate and the client’s requirement that
the existing apartment block on the site be incorporated into the
new offices, the above urban design constraints formed the primary
determining factors insofar as the building’s planning and
organisation are concerned.
The entrance lobby and principal point of access is located on the
western side of the building off a proposed new public square in
Gutenberg Platz so as to encourage pedestrian traffic through this
commercial precinct. This square is to contain a new restaurant and
will in the future be linked to the municipal parkade with
pedestrian ramps on two levels. The lobby comprises a seven storey
open volume with a glazed curtain wall extending the full height and
contains a cantilevered steel staircase which follows this glazing
to the top floor. The extensive glazing is protected from solar gain
by a briese soleil of concrete and aluminium positioned on the
exterior which also facilitates access for cleaning and maintenance
.
The new building itself is arranged in a 5 storey L-shaped
configuration which is wrapped around the northern edge of the
existing building with its long axis oriented east/west. This
orientation, together with selected passive climate control measures
addresses climate constraints and facilitates a more efficient use
of energy over the lifetime of the building. In this regard service
spaces such as ablution and plant rooms are also positioned on the
western side of the building in order to act as thermal buffers for
the occupied spaces beyond during hot summer afternoons and thereby
reducing the load on air conditioning equipment. The windows in the
envelope are operable so as to afford the users a further measure of
control over the interior climate, and in order to facilitate
contact with the outside when required.
Balconies on the northern facade provide places where users can find
relief from the work environment and serve to articulate and shade
this facade.
The top floor is dedicated to an executive office suite that
maximises views out over the city to the Auas and Hochland mountains
in the south and west, and which accommodates the new head office of
the client.
Materials selection for the exterior was informed predominantly by a
desire for durability and the need to reduce maintenance to a
minimum over the lifetime of the building. In this regard anodised
aluminium was utilised extensively for window frames, louvers and
shading devices, as well as for cladding to the top floor roof where
future access would be both difficult and expensive. Face brick
cladding and off-shutter concrete finishes serve the same purpose
for the remainder of the envelope while rustic natural stone
cladding was installed over large areas of the plastered and painted
surfaces of the existing building, to the same end.
In order to expedite the implementation thereof
the construction of Gutenberg Plaza was undertaken using a
provisional bill of quantities. This was considerably complicated by
the constricted nature of the inner city site and the earthworks,
piling and underpinning were all carried out in poor soil
conditions, in the exceptionally heavy rains which fell during the
summer of 2004/5.
Vehicular access to on-site parking on street and basement levels
was originally planned to be from within the municipal parkade to
the north, subject to an agreement between the City of Windhoek and
the developer. Negotiations in this regard deadlocked however and
the requisite vehicle ramps where in due course accommodated on the
site.
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