Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban

Anyone who has recently been to Durban for whatever reason it might have been; swimming, surfing, cycling or indulging in a hot roti; most definitely would have had their eyeballs fixated on what has become an extraordinary marvel on the rolling lush green landscape of Durban.

If it was thought that South Africa couldn’t pull off an architectural piece of wizardry, go ogle the new Durban stadium. Durban Stadium or Moses Mabhida, epitomises the design and construction capability of this southern tipped wedge. ‘Handed over recently, it places South Africa’s construction industry and its ability to deliver world class structures at the top with its international competitors’, say the excited Osmond Lange over-seeing director, Deon van Onselen

A new Iconic Stadium

The clients brief danced around the ideas of an iconic building.

According to the Ethekwini Municipality, the brief’s non-negotiable was that the stadium performed as an icon, as a beacon to the city of Durban. To be an icon, the stadium ought to imbue meaning, familiar associations and symbolic representations to distinguish it in a world of homogony. To be iconinc, it must root itself culturally, aesthetically and through meaning to its environment. By anchoring itself, its functioning and its environment to cultural associations it will be rendered  memorable and distinguishable.                                                                                                                  These ideas of Icon, were to be achieved through common understandable space, through texture, colour and artefacts significant to its surroundings and its people. the brief laid out that it should be a symbol of civic pride and inspiration to those using it, visiting it or running it. It should draw on its surroundings, on the physical features which give identity and character to the site-the sea, the river, and the dunes. That it should well in the spirits of the people a sense of achievement, a sense of ownership.  That the icon inspires a web, binding people old and young, races and nationalities. The iconoclastic edifice should hum a welcoming rhythm inviting people of all walks of life to feel welcome in its embrace. The psychology of the building through architectural and structural elements ought to encompass or allow for people to feel easy, comfortable and alive with in its surrounds. The stadium does exactly that, it wows, thrills and has etched excitement into the minds of South Africans previously dubious about the possibility of it all. The Stadium has somewhat defined the travellers experience of Durban.

The stadium would be seen too as a catalyst for further growth and development of the city of Durban. It would also usher in a new phase of the city’s emergence within the country. This new stadium is a reflection of the ideas and ideologies of the Ethekwini Municipality, and begins to signify its intent in expressing an interest in architectural progress but also reflecting social, cultural and political change.

The stadium sits in its precinct as a light white edifice on a green landscaped base, harking back to the piazza del Duomo in Pisa. This podium, on which the stadium rests forms a gathering space outside the stadium

Having had the opportunity to scale the heights, to rise up the elevated platform of an African landscape re-imagined, towards the stadium bowl, I was absolutely mesmerized.  I was struck by the blatant expression of structural integrity, and by the light and shadow play of the steel pylons leaning rather beautifully, sweeping around the stadium like tutu-clad ballerinas in the pirouette position.  The super structural elements visible, emerge as off shutter concrete, light grey in colour and glass smooth to the touch.  I was left gob smacked by the over arching arch, pulled taught  like a bow ready to fling the country into a month of extreme excitement , splayed at the foot to allow for a view, a window to the city of Durban, a most enticing backdrop. From afar, a distance the arch is a defining silhouette, a recognisable marker in the landscape, a means of orientation assisting in the navigation of the city. The Arch a support for the tensile roof structure,  a network of steel cables, looking oh-so-delicate as to be plucked like a Stradivarius, the ring-beam, a bicycle wheel pulling the steel ropes, binding the exterior façade,  all piecing this whole marvel to form a gymnastic ‘perfect 10’.

In contrast to the stark light grey coolness of the off-shutter concrete, the palette of colours utilised on in fill walls and interiors is far warmer. The architects dipped their paint brush into the ocean, used the tones of the beaches, the brightly explicit colours of clothing and the exuberance of handcrafted jewellery to express the vibrancy of the local surrounds in the building.

Osmond Lange formed an integral part of a sextuplet of architectural teams under the consortium Ibhola Lethu Consortium.

The South African team collaborating together with the astute structural genius and functional planning know-how of a firm of German architects has vaulted the stadium into the echelons of a world class sporting facility and at the same time has created something rather special, something aligned with a jewel in the Zulu kingdom’s crown.

The navel, the sugar bowl of the stadium, a light and energy force on the landscape is encircled in a series of layered elements, both functional and aesthetic allowing for social space, restaurants, gazing and admiring of artworks. The social/public space, branded Imbizo Place, houses 6000sqm of retail and dining facilities. The intention of this was to broaden the possibilities of usage to which the Stadium and its immediate ‘precinct’ could be put to so, other recreational activities, and diverse cultural events can be hosted in the future. These resources bode well for the future longevity of the stadium.

The stadium is designed to be transparent, allowing by-standers to get a feel of the action taking place inside-everyone will be able to sense the electrifying atmosphere even if you aren’t a fortunate ticket holder. A facility to allow for those outside the stadium to experience the frenzy has been developed. Its called ‘Peoples Park’, a 10Ha landscaped public park area, including sports fields and the ‘Heroes Walk’, a mapped out route from the city centre to the stadium.  The People’s Park incorporating the restructured district, the consolidated sports precinct and the public space would serve as a central park for Durban and collectively would form part of the Stadium’s iconic statement. An hierarchy of urban functions and places will be established within the park with the stadium being the central focus. 

As I sat on the raw concrete steps that were to be the raked seating I was informed that 70 000 screaming, excitable football fans could be accommodated during the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup, and 54 000 in legacy mode thereafter. I was awed. That is surely world class. The seating, a pixellated image of bright colouring drawing its inspiration from the ivory coloured beach sand merging into the turquiouses and pastel blues of the ocean is a playful light-hearted aesthetic giving the stadium bowl a sense that it is a landscape. The upper stand of the bowl seating is awash in colours graded from yellow to white, the middle stand graded in a yellow to green pixel mix with scattered light greys and whites, and lastly the lower stand sees individual seating graded in a blue to green pixel mix dotted too with light greys and whites.

There are some exciting opportunities as a visitor to the stadium to experience the building itself. If you’ve an inner core of iron clad steel, you will be able to take a ride from the northern side of the stadium up along the arch to its pinnacle. From here spectators can catch a glimpse of the city from a birds perspective. The alternative for those more adventurous and with calves of titanium is to take a guided walk up the 550 stairs to a platform at the top. I’ll stick to rollerblading on the Peoples Park.

The stadium was intricately thought through, and in-bedded are the symbolic elements which enhance the experience of being inside or outside the stadium. The expanded steel mesh wrapping the façade and the infill panels of the balustrades illicit the beauty of hand-made baskets. Depending on one’s perspective the facades of the stadium appear to be either opaque or transport. A dynamic feature of the building.

the white tensile roof, harbours notions of the nearby harbour and of the white horses prancing, topping the seas of the natal coast, the use of natural indigenous planting and trees linking the precinct on an urban scale enhances ones sense that this is emphatically Africa’s world cup, Africa’s party, the incorporation of signs and symbols particular to the African landscape contextualises the building. All these elements give the stadium both an intellectually and experientially enhanced  feel.

As I trudged away from the site with dust swirling in my nostrils, I looked back at the stadium. Its purity and simplicity of form reminding me of the Berlin Olympic stadium- It’s unwavering bold, sturdy form, absolutely dramatic in the landscape.

This edifice is sexy, sultry, and sits prominently in the landscape. It is without a doubt a marvel of a backdrop to a great event, a great sport.

Vodafone Innovation Centre, Midrand. GLH Architects

Ah, a sandwich, a beigel sandwich, an ‘everything’ beigel splashed with hundreds and thousands of seeds, gently toasted on either side.buttered. Cream cheese, double thick, cresting as it’s heavily smeared atop the warm New Yorker holy plateau, melting as it hits the warmth of the toasty edge. The Nova lox, salmon, gloriously pink, plucked fresh from the claws of a giant grizzly in the cold tundra of Canada. As the smoked salmon is bedded upon the cream cheese, heavily set, fresh cut firm tomatoes, bursting with seed are laid to rest, overlapping the pinky gray. Capers, hugged and squeezed are drizzled over the tomatoes. Ah a crack o’ pepper, a shake o’ salt, and then crowned with the top side of the beigel. aaaah....sorry, this is an architecture blog. I digress.

the Vodacom Innovation Hub that sits in Midrand , sits layered, founded on a series of snaking Gabion walls, walls that ‘breathe’ allowing cool breaths of wind to pass beneath the building to circulate through its bowels. Giant chillers sip sippity sip the cool breeze, plummeting its temperatures, and pulsing the coolness through the breathing gills set with-in the pre-cast slabbed floor.

The double Skin facade performs allowing the edifice to appear aquarium-like.  Harnessing the science of radiation, transmittance, and conduction, the 2 panes of glass sandwich an 800mm air filler active in buffering the inside from the heat of outside. The void open to the elements breathes mediating the infiltrating outside temperatures.  Automated blinds rise and fall as the sun dots and dances its path across the sky protecting occupiers from harsh radiation.
The facade sits upon a concrete floor, pre-cast and pre-piped for winding chilling pipes to gush cold coolth through the ground as summer temperatures soar. 
The eucalyptus trunks lean and beautifully paired support the laminated beams, soft roof, and some serious electricity generating solar panels. The abundance of energy supplies even the neighbours. What a giver. Centre of the square donut sits a water purification plant souping up rain water and grey water too. It’s filled with indigenous reeds which are soaking and cleaning making reuse practical.

Radiant coolers divide spaces, cool the rising heat, satiate the thirst of plants below and act as water cooler talking points.

Outside chipped once-used Spanish roof tiles lay scattered upon the earth keeping moisture in the soil, protecting it from the pulverising drying abilities of the sunny orb. Indigenous planting huddles, surrounds the oblong building sipping not too much and not too little, but just right.

This is Johannesburg’s 6-star Green Star test tube. It’s an illustration of sustainable design, there to be seen, there to be understood.

Alexander Forbes, Sandton

The building gathering all the adulation of a coked-up rock ‘n roll star is the Alex Forbes building on Rivonia Road. 

Oooh it’s Green Star rated and Versus can’t stop shouting from the hill tops that they painted it. It’s won every award this country offers architects, and when groups of students walk the tour they gawp, dribbling upon the tiled floorscape, staring upwards, inwards at the heaving lung of the atrium.

The corner of West and Katherine is a monolith, a towering peak. Impregnable. The towering parking basement soaks up the flak of the giant slope both West and Katherine present. From a southerly approach, the building is impenetrable; showered in shadow not offering much for a pedestrian who wishes to dance and sing in the rain.
then swooping front side the building’s grilled mask, Its flecked gills, its breathing apparatus present its self to an adoring crowd.

as our bus drops us on Rivonia road, the building greets us with its deep pavement, a spacious  enough plaza softening the narrow-edged paving of neighbouring buildings. The building sits North West, its front door spilling onto Rivonia Road like a splashed cup of cool-aid. It’s presented to the City of Sandton a soft edge through its emerging, narrowing staircase buffered by indigenous growings. The babbling brooks are unique in a concretised CBD softening the land, softening our minds. It’s approachable, though the defended facade is agreeable and anyone can dilly dally in its cocooned landscape. It’s the corporate way they say. with its Darth Vadian mask of a facade, its grilled visor and breathing apparatus, the extra-terrestrial of A Forbes lurks prominently.

Pushing through the revolving door, we’re revolutionised. The receptionists sit foetal in the sculpted pavilions. The deep voluminous clinical atrium is ribbed by swirling light-weighted walkways looped in LED cutting through the daylit space like a floor gymnast and her swash buckling ribbons .As I stare up towards the bowels of the building, looking up the ribbed cage towards the amoeba like sky lights, I see portals to the outer world, my Oculus VR goggles well holstered to my cargo pants.

The interior is a looking-glass into the future where we’ll be inhabiting a Martian landscape with driverless pods careening through the fogless lungs of habitable atria.
The central service core is protected by the buildings rib cage, this is the heart of the edifice. Escalators zig zag occupants up around up around up and for those wanting an insular ride the elevators fling one floor to floor in a flash kissing levels disconnected from any sexy romance.
sputnik has landed, the Russians are coming.
The roof scape is a machines lair. The looping cabling and exhaust vents defining a landscape of robotic desertion. It’s soul is stripped and only the views south towards the rolling scapes of Illovo lighten our eyes. From here Sandton is arises. Glass ribbed buildings and glass blob-like structures define an icy landscape, an ice fall while the landfill dump of Alex is in our midst.

Arise futurist city, arise. 

The Creative Counsel

There is a something in the air tonight, Fernando. It’s something I can feel, something I can see. It’s the dynamic evolving face of Jo’burg’s architectural landscape, the very fabric we engage with each and every day. The city is undergoing a metamorphosis, not so much a jeff goldblum, but a slow Darwinian change.

We were happy with stock standard- maximizing floor plate, cheap as chips, applied decoration, and if the architecture attracted a ‘nice building’ quip everyone was spinning hula hoops, the building even got mention in a magazine, oooh.
In aeons gone by RFB architects floated our boats with their Gateway project on Rivonia Road. Its shipping ends, cabled shading eliciting lightness, and its overall extraordinary architecture rubbing against Sandtons grain. That was then, but now it’s seen its death, a sunken ship. The Bermuda triangle has made space for something new, something better than a red velvet cookie.
Now the Big Cheese has seen the light. Seen the effect a beautiful building has on perception, on landscape, on the eye. On marketability. Once we threw out words like ‘sustainable’, now we've replaced it with ‘iconic’, ‘statement’, and ‘x-factor’…, oh gsus, not a Simon Cowel Sunday night paraphrase. Somebody bring me a barf bag.

Shlurpin, sipping on my strawed coolie, I wonder, finally, joburg is seeing the front page news. ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’
No Jo’burger out of the field of architecture knew the word ‘iconic’ until Paragon’s Norton Rose .

As day turns to dusk and the Creative Counsel building hovers as a settled stalk above the river rushing, pulsing Corlett Drive, the glass turns iron solid until the internal lights flare to show the highway hurtlers a view of the glass menagerie, the ‘box’, a hovering portal, Richard Dean Anderson’s Stargate, the bobbing heads of brand activationists.
Book-ending the drek of car show rooms, buildings best positioned at hell’s door, and holding tight before we swoop beneath the always flooded Corlett bridge, a bridge over troubled waters, the building announces. It’s a sharp shooter, from the hip. We know it has arrived.
The car showrooms don’t belong, they’ve paint-stripped, violated a once textured, pedestrianised and fine grained Corlett Drive. I had hoped a new building would ignite transition. That was you Creative. Your opportunity is not lost though, it’s the park my furry little friends, it’s the park.
 The beautiful brutal smooth as softserve concrete crushing the frail clip-on china-mart decorations of vehicle branded parking lots. A sturdy edifice in a sea of flimsy wedding frills.
As I’m redlining it down the M1 north in my souped-up Tazz, The Counsel, winks at me, her skirt billowing as Marilyn Munroe’s. Lights, camera, Action. She is a billboard building. Her orientation is on me, it’s on you. Her slender sexy piloti tippy toeing, she be peeking unto the highway, ‘what’s going on, she asks?’ But really she knows what’s going on.

Her elevated base, separating man from machine. A swooping stair case guides you up and onwards onto the stage positioning you above the ebb and flow of peak time traffic. This is your platform. Your opportunity to shine.The LED’s swooping around the tight-anium clad drums hook the eye, pulling, reeling one in, like white to rice, like a Mozambiquen mozzie to my syrupy blood.

The polished drums, a scaled fish, a shinier glean than Freedom Square’s, 3 of them rise, puncturing the concrete frame. Puncturing a blue sky breaking up a horizontal horizon. A nod to Le Corb’s Unite, or just volumetric chest pounding.

They’ve created landmark, like it like a lollipop or despise it like bubble gum on your boots. This edifice, this aesthetic, whether good or bad is ‘iconic’, it’s distinguishing.

It takes balls the size of the 1986 prize winning pumpkin at the country farm fair in Utah Alabama to erect a building so particular to one tenant in this day and age of sustainability. The Creative Counsel did it by the scribbley pen of Paragon Architects