Civil Engineering March 2021 | Vol 29 No 2

WINNER IN THE ARCHITECTURAL CATEGORY The Precinct Lifestyle Hub With the housing market in decline, Century Property Developments diverted their business model into the rental game and commissioned into construction a lifestyle hub. The building features a movie theatre, spa, games room, restaurant, and gym, presenting an at- tractive rental portfolio to clients in the Midrand area. Structural frame and challenges The structure consists of a portal frame fabricated using universal beams with two floor levels which use universal beams to support various types of concrete floors. To reduce cost and maintain feasi- bility of the entire project, various slab interactions were utilised. This included hollow core technology combined with a composite slab. The front portal extended down to the lower ground floor; thus, the steelwork needed to be constructed in various phases. Allowing for access to pack the hollow core slabs meant structural steel columns had to be erected without the portals. Following the packing of the slabs the portals could be completed. The bridge connecting Building 2 to Building 3 was design using 3D scan tech- nology from Paramatic South Africa. This was to maintain the natural koppie and ensure the design best aligned with the rock feature available. This bridge was con- structed from the top down: the walkway was propped and installed, followed by the columns and then the foundations were cast. This was to ensure the bridge aligned perfectly with the footings and touched the earth lightly, limiting the environmental impact of the construction. The benefit of steel The ability to manufacture the steel frame off-site provided significant time savings. The original steel contractor went under, and their replacement, Tass Engineering, got involved in the project at a very late stage and had to expedite the detailing, supply, manufacture, delivery, and erection in order to ensure that a quality product was handed over on time to ensure the success of the housing estate completion. The exposed portal frames also provide an industrial look. All connections, joints and interactions required careful consid- eration to ensure the final product was in line with the architectural requirements, resulting in a building that is honest in its structure and architectural intent.  KEY PLAYERS Client/Developer Century Property Developments Architect/engineer/ main contractor Century Property Developments Structural engineer ADA Consulting Engineers Steelwork contractor Tass Engineering Cladding contractor NG Roofing 44 March 2021  Civil Engineering