Corner office

WORDS KATHLEEN WESTERN PHOTOGRAPHY CAROL STEWART

2 Pybus is located in the financial hub of the rapidly redeveloping CBD of Sandton, Johannesburg. The site occupies the corner of Pybus Street and Rivonia Road, and has significant presence along Rivonia Road close to the Sandton Drive intersection. The land is wellpositioned in terms of visibility within the neighbourhood, and vehicular and pedestrian access.

The architecture is articulated to draw visitors in and address the street corner. The strong L-form opens to the angled Pybus frontage, setting up an efficient and flexible modular building form on the north-western and southeastern boundaries, and presenting a welcoming face and generous garden to the northern Pybus edge. The glazed street level lobby ensures the building is not removed from its context.

The architecture of 2 Pybus in the Sandton CBD is articulated to draw visitors in. The strong L-form presents a welcoming face and generous garden to the northern Pybus edge.

The building comprises a rentable office area of 11 000m 2 on nine office floors, along with support amenities, including ground-floor meeting suites, a coffee shop, entertainment areas, and a beautiful north-facing elevated garden and terrace, supported by six floors of parking.

The architectural expression is modern but timeless. The curtain-wall façade creates a seamless whole, even though the building can be divided internally into many offices. The openable glazing combines vision panels, allowing ample light and views, with spandrel panels to allow for plenty of bookshelves in each chamber. Integrated façade aerofoils modulate the north-western façade exposure and blinds offer personalised glare control internally.

The glass façade is married with a beat of staggered vertical stone elements in shades of travertine, together with broader panels of darker granite, and planted screens ground and dematerialise the mass

of the building. Simple pared back concrete columns establish a rhythm around the base of the building. These tactile materials in their natural state set the tone for the palette inside, which combines the clean modern finishes of smooth concrete, stone, glass and stainless steel with elegantly patterned porcelain and warm timbers.

At all times, the architectural focus is on creating positive, quality working environments.

The arrival floor of the building acts as the heart of the scheme, creating a dynamic and active zone where staff and visitors can gather, meet and exchange ideas. The area includes a welcoming reception, waiting areas and break-out spaces, coffee shop and varying sized meeting facilities with views onto the garden and terraces, with the benefit of the option to open out into the outdoors.

A central serviced walkway on each floor means that efficient offices or chambers can be arranged along either side. The angled

building corners - augmented with balconies - and the central vertical circulation knuckle provide ideal opportunities to enhance the office floors with pause areas, open-plan support staff spaces, and print and filing hubs. The co-location of collaborative spaces with the liveliness of people circulating around the building can create a buzz where incidental exchange can occur.

The arrival floor of the building creates a dynamic and active zone where staff and visitors can gather, meet and exchange ideas. The area includes a welcoming reception, waiting areas and break-out spaces, coffee shop and meeting facilities.

External views are maximised throughout the office spaces, connecting the staff to their surrounds, and offering opportunities for visual breaks.

The glass façade is married with staggered vertical stone elements in shades of travertine, together with broader panels of darker granite.

The design sits the building wings back from Pybus Street to create a generous garden in which to linger, and spill out as an unaffected foreground to the architecture.

WSP in Africa’s Green by Design team was appointed to provide Green Star and sustainable design consulting services. The project has achieved a 4 Star Green Star Design rating and is now in the process of submitting the As Built Rating to the Green Building Council of South Africa. “It was important for the building to implement environmentally responsible design initiatives, as this is key in attracting and retaining the right tenants,” says Alison Groves, Regional Director, WSP, Building Services, Africa.

A combination of sensible passive design principles and selected active technologies were used to minimise the impact of the building and its ongoing use on the environment, as well as to enhance the experience of working in and visiting the building.

The design of individual offices for each advocate allows the developer to offer a high level of autonomy to the tenants. Each office is an acoustically treated private space that has access to

an openable window. This feature is quite unusual in the Sandton landscape. Manually operated blinds ensure that the direct solar glare can be managed thereby reducing the load on the air-conditioning system. Adding to the level of individual management, each office is equipped with a thermostatic control allowing the tenant to adjust the temperature to meet their individual needs. The lights are all automatically switched using occupancy sensors, relieving individual responsibility for turning off the lights and saving energy.

The building seeks to represent the pursuit of business and legal practice with transparency, equity and humanity. Individual chambers or offices with their own identities can be gathered within a collective whole where strength stems from unity with diversity. The scheme offers a contemporary yet sleek and timeless design, which is both internationally referential and locally grounded, responding to the site specifics, knitting the new building into the supporting environment, and creating a generous and welcoming architectural form that contributes to and engages positively with its surrounds.

External views are maximised throughout the office spaces, connecting the staff to their surrounds, and offering opportunities for visual breaks.