News & Media
July 2009
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION CAMPUS
The Department of International Relations and Co-Operation (DICO) required a suitable and sustainable single-site working environment for its head office staff complement. Currently the DICO occupies eight buildings which are scattered around Pretoria.
The new campus, sited on 15 hectares of land on Soutpansberg Road on the northern side of the Daspoort Ridge in Pretoria, had to portray the values of the DICO; provide a platform for improved service delivery; and surmount the operational difficulties posed by the current dispersed and inadequate accommodation.
The construction of the 175 000 m2 campus is being undertaken under the government’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative by Imbumba Aganang who have a design and construct consortium sub consultant comprising Concor Building, Trencon and Motheo Group. The Government advisor team is headed by SPP projects with Vela VKE consulting engineers as the technical advisor and Deneys Reitz as legal advisor.
 An aerial view of the DICO campus. |
The fast track 25 month project, which is due for completion in 2009, had an outlay at peak of R100-million a month, with a total project value of R1.3-billion.
Designed to accommodate 2 300 personnel, the campus will comprise two parking basements; seven 4-storey low-rise office towers, integrated through a main thoroughfare; a state-of-the-art conference centre to host international events; and the Diplomatic Academy which is responsible for training diplomats. A new boutique style guesthouse is also being built on a remote corner of the main campus site, while the existing DICO guesthouse in Pretoria is being refurbished as part of the project.
According to Mark Pencharz, director in charge of design on the project at TC Design Architects in joint venture with ACG Architects, the DICO building is second in stature only to the State President’s office in terms of political status. “The project design requirement called for longevity and durability of structure.
“Our brief was to design a building which would be sustainable for at least 50 years. We therefore needed to be sensitive to maintenance issues and the life cycle of the materials and building components during the conceptualisation phase,” Pencharz explains.
“The idea was to emulate the stature of the Union Buildings which is constructed of natural stone. However, the budgetary constraints dictated that we consider other more affordable building mediums,” Pencharz adds.
“We initially considered the use of thin stone cladding but felt that this would detract from the intended solidity of the buildings. Hence we decided to make use of glass curtain walling and off shutter concrete to achieve the desired natural effect.”
Pencharz says that other advantages in using concrete are its cost effectiveness, rapidity of construction and ease of application by a relatively unskilled labour force. “In addition concrete, when correctly used, has an appearance of enduring longevity, which is definitely a factor in the formality of the building and the sustainability of the DICO campus.”
The entire project was governed by the PPP process which calls for the design, construction and operation of the campus. “Image and functionality were equally important in our conceptualisation of the building as, unlike a hospital for instance, the building had to have a visual appeal while fulfilling a technical brief.
“In this instance we needed to produce a design that was culturally in sync with its environment as well as being representative of the democratic climate in the country. This meant that the idea generation and decision making had to be an all-inclusive process,” Pencharz says.
What made the conceptual design difficult during the bidding according to Pencharz was the interpretation of the DICO’s intention with regard to the campus. “To a large extent we were working in a vacuum and because collaboration with the Department was not permitted during bidding, we had no idea of knowing what direction to take.”
In effect, the project was ‘designed by committee’, which entailed open forums between the architectural, construction and project management teams on an ongoing basis. “The design needed to have appeal to a broad jury and therefore a great degree of flexibility in judgement was required by the team,” Pencharz explains.
Pencharz says that a large influencing factor on the design of the campus was the budget and the fast track time allocation. “We made adjustments to our original specifications with regard to certain finishes but at no stage were the output specifications compromised.”
The buildings were designed to have a cultural aesthetic appeal and to achieve this in an energy efficient manner. The incorporation of light shelves that reflect light into shadowed areas within the buildings contributed to the required 20% energy reduction. “As part of our project specification we were requested to make use of locally available materials so this added to the challenges we faced in sourcing personnel and other resources,” Kevin Hussey, project manager for the project management JV, says.
Hussy says that the campus was designed in a way that is structurally simple. “We achieved this simplicity by using coffered slabs in order to get the longest possible spans, to minimise the number of columns required.”
Fast track construction
The project, which kicked off in May 2007, called for the use of 65 000 m3 of concrete from AfriSam which was used mainly in off shutter finish to achieve the smooth earthy façade required. A variety of mix strengths, ranging from 10 MPa through 20, 25, 30, 30 post-tensioned and 40 MPa were used throughout the campus and at the off-site guest lodge. A 25 MPa surface bed mix was used for the walkways.
The DICO conference centre is designed as an oval footprint structure with its walls sloped outwards on the vertical orientation. The sweeping vertical spider columns form the rhythm of the façade, reaching heights of 17 metres at the apex.
“Because of the challenging shape of the conference centre building we simulated and modelled the proposed design using computer technology and determined that the ideal approach was to use a structural steel formwork which was manufactured off-site then assembled on-site. We then sprayed gunite onto this framework in layers to form a composite structure which has the appearance of a solid concrete structure,” Hussey explains. “After guniting we applied a thin cladding material to produce a metal-like panelled finish to the conference centre.”
Pencharz says that the brief called for a contemporary design which nevertheless retained a traditional African ambience. “This motivated the conceptualisation of the precast reinforced concrete clad spider beam columns, combined with the concrete ‘flower boxes’ to emulate the African basket weave pattern. The flower boxes act as both shading and landscape devices. The spider beam/columns and elevated flower boxes were also clad in solid core sheeting, similar to the conference centre.
“We achieved this by vertically orienting the spider columns from the ground to the roof then sweeping over the roof and down the opposing side of the building. The columns leave the ground approximately eight metres from the building then sweep inwards to the apex of the building to form a 4-storey arc,” Hussey explains.
In addition to the decision to use a structural steel frame, the team elected to use an adjustable shutter instead of a single shutter. Precast concrete was chosen as the method of construction for these large shaped columns, as it offered an advantage both from a time and finish perspective.
Weaving in and out of the spider columns in an irregular fashion on the front façade of the building are the concrete flower boxes. Each measuring an average of 25 metres horizontally, the flower boxes were cast in-situ, a methodology which is not commonly used in this application.
Finishes
On the exterior of the building concrete predominates with blockwork to all east and west facing facades and at the entrance to the conference centre.
Internally, there is a mixture of exposed concrete, plaster finish, glass curtain walling and concrete blockwork. The emphasis predominantly on the concrete blockwork was chosen over the more traditional face brick or glass façades which is common practice in architecture today as it was felt it symbolises the same medium used to build the RDP houses and the Union Buildings’ stone façade and would symbolise a synergy between the DICO, the people and history.
Hussy explains that at the outset it was decided to use block bond instead of stretcher bond for the blockwork. “This building methodology was deliberately chosen in order to hark back to the earthy roots of early South African buildings.”
While block bond creates a more contemporary feel than stretcher bond, it is more technically challenging as there is absolutely no room for error. “In order to achieve absolute symmetry in the laying of the blocks, it was necessary to provide extensive training for the bricklayers,” Hussey says.
Substantially more expensive than the stretcher bond method, block bond also lacks the inherent strength present in stretcher bond. “In order to provide the blockwork with absolute structural integrity we used internal ties to join the blocks together in a unified whole,” Hussey says.
Challenges
As is always the case with fast track projects, there is absolutely no room for error and the logistics had to be streamlined to provide continuity of supply of resources. “At the outset we were faced with enormous problems in sourcing our resources, from the perspective of plant, physical labour, trade skills and materials,” Hussey says.
“Unfortunately, the project kick off coincided with a number of large construction projects like the Gautrain, the roads upgrading and the various stadia for the 2010 Soccer Cup. In addition to finding a suitably qualified labour force, we were also under obligation to meet predetermined BEE quotas which naturally exacerbated the problem.
“These were not problems faced by us alone but also by the numerous sub-contractors we had on site so there was a huge focus on using resources carefully and wisely,” Hussey adds.
Community involvement
In order to address the skills shortage, while at the same time reinvesting in the local community, the DICO’s PPP set up an on-site training centre and put 48 people through a bricklaying learnership. “The focus was predominantly on skilling the labourers in block bond techniques and, in addition to a number of people selected from the local community, some of our core permanent labour force also went through the certification process,” Hussey says.
In addition, 45 people completed a learnership in concrete work; 17 undertook the plastering learnership; 44 did a shuttering learnership and 63 people were certified in steel fixing. All qualifications are officially CETA-accredited Learnerships and will provide the local labourers with the necessary skills to seek future employment.
Together with the upskilling of the local community, the PPP was also involved in a number of projects aimed at enhancing the surroundings for the community.
In sync with the environment
Hussy says that the protection of the surrounding environment was a stipulated priority for the project team and involved discussion and collaboration with the local community to ensure adherence to strict environmental protection guidelines.
The property on which the DICO campus is sited is encapsulated within a ridge zone which has stringent environmental protection measures attached to it. Under the ambit of the Department of Environmental Affiars and Tourism, not only were there a number of fauna and flora species which were deemed ecologically sensitive, but there are also a number of protected archaeological artefacts on site.
The protection zone extends exactly 200 metres to the south of the ridge which meant that 40% of the original site fell within this “buffer zone”. “This naturally placed serious constraints on the feasibility of the campus construction as there is no land available for on grade parking so we had to design and build underground parking only,” Hussey says.
Hussey concludes that in spite of the complexity of the design and construction, coupled with capacity problems and tight completion schedules, the campus will be an iconic African representation of democracy and solidity.
Quantities:
| DESCRIPTION | QUANTITY | UNIT |
| Concrete | 65 000 | m3 |
| Formwork | 219 000 | m2 |
| Formwork in slabs | 133 000 | m2 |
| Surfacebeds | 46 000 | m2 |
| Reinforcing | 7 076 | tons |
| Blockwork | 277 000 | no. |
| Conference centre: | ||
| Structural steel | 384 | tons |
| Gunite | 900 | m2 |
| Steel feature columns: | ||
| Feature (spider) columns | 61 | no. |
| Weight | 200 | tons |
| Precast cladding to feature columns: | ||
| Precast segments | 672 | no. |
| Concrete volume of segments | 550 | m3 |
| Column height | 16.6 | m |
| Finishes: | ||
| Curtain walls | 10 592 | m2 |
| Floor tiling | 18 300 | m2 |
| Carpets | 60 670 | m2 |
| Ceilings | 47 000 | m2 |
| Partitions | 11 000 | m |
SUE UPTON
CONCOR GROUP
TEL : +27 011 495 2288