Roadcrete Africa, a civil contracting company, needed to expand and update their headquarters while still staying operational. The existing building was a 1 story “L” shaped face-brick structure. They needed to expand to two levels to increase their office space. The main design challenge centred around adding an additional story while not bearing huge loads on the original structure.

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The design concept was to create 3 separate visual blocks. The first block is a dark, masonry order, the second a burnt orange walls with large glazed openings entrance block with one of the main feature’s being the cantilevered steel beam canopies. The third block is comprised black steel portal frame envelope clad with of colour coded steel panels which also act sunscreens for the tall fenestration behind and forms part of the bracing to the main steel structure.

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The client is very colour conscious and he wanted the building to express itself by having bold colours that accentuate the various portions of the structure. A white corrugated cladding was used to wrap around the ablution facility on the first level, this worked effectively to screen off unsightly plumbing and to form a contrasting background onto which the new signage could be fixed to. A portion of the existing lower block was left unchanged in terms of the facebrick finish on the facade, this idea was based on blending the new with old while maintaining a high level of quality and aesthetic appreciation for the various types of building finishes.