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Corlett Drive
105 Corlett Drive is a striking commercial building in the Johannesburg suburb of Birnam housing the innovative advertising agency The Creative Counsel. A two-storey office building sits above a three-storey car parking podium on three double-volume cones clad in lacquered steel “scales” from ArcelorMittal. These, together with high-specification glazing of the office space, comprise a dynamic architectural envelope that reflects the ever-changing sunlight, the sky and surrounding landscape, adding an element of high drama to an otherwise serious looking structure.
Architect Paragon Architects (Anthony Orelowitz) Location Melrose Arch, Sandton - South Africa Company involved ArcelorMittal Website http://www.arcelormittal.com/construction
The office space comprises an elongated, flattened concrete and glass form enclosed by wrapped ends. This is punctuated with vertical slits, with its east elevation chamfered in plan to follow the site boundary.
The metal-clad conical forms house reception and training spaces, while the rectilinear base podium comprises a brickwork and concrete “enclosing element” with a coated aluminium infill panel and a low-level band of African blue slate riven walling.
The choice of the aptly named Caïman cladding for the conical forms was based on an aesthetic requirement as well as its competitive price, says project architect Carla Soudien. It could also, she adds, “hold the required form while other materials could not”.
A network of steel columns is clad in a layer of galvanized sheeting which comprises the weather line of the forms, Soudien explains, and the silver-coloured CaÏman cladding is attached to a sub-structure of “omega rails”, providing a ventilation gap between it and the inner cladding.
Co-ordinating the process between the frame, cladding and glazing subcontractors, was quite a challenge, she adds, with each junction being unique because of the unusual forms.
The glazing in the cone forms - narrow strip windows and entrance shop fronts - is a highly reflective glass, Solarshield S10 Silver, “to accentuate the folding forms of the cones”. The cones have a lightweight sheet roof on a steel structure with a flat concrete roof over the stairs and lift shafts.
The internal walls of the cones are skimmed and painted dry walling, in sculptural forms, “which appear to be folding and pull away from the structure in places to make dramatic envelopes of space”. The windows are punctured in the walls, with slanted sills and tapered reveals lending “an almost Gothic feel”.
Polished concrete walkways with a saw-cut pattern and inlays of slate tiles reflect the pattern of the riven walling on the basement façade. Adjacent infill landscaping is “xeriscaped” - landscaped with minimal need for water - using indigenous, low-maintenance plants with tall grass-like planting on the perimeter to soften the edge of the building and the balustrades.
The roof landscaping matches the ground floor podium with a combination of polished concrete walkways and similar planting.
