Const. Court building wins award

The building housing the Constitutional Court in Braamfontein has won the highest accolade in architecture - an Award for Excellence conferred by the SA Institute of Architects' (SAIA) - for its African architecture and people-friendly atmosphere.

The Constitutional Court has received another award: the SA Institute of Architects' (SAIA) Award for Excellence.

Awarded every second year for an exceptional achievement in architecture, the award was conferred on 1 September at a gala event in Bloemfontein.

"It is the most prestigious award in architecture and the highest accolade that the SAIA and the architectural profession can confer on a building," said a SAIA press statement.

The court, with its distinctly African architecture and people-friendly atmosphere, sets a new standard in court construction that breaks from the usual stuffy, unwelcoming court buildings of the past.

The court was designed by OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions Architects and Urban Designers.

Architect Paul Wygers of Urban Solutions said he felt great satisfaction with the project and the award.

The award is not the result of a competition, and as a result, more than one award may be given, or none at all. The award is sponsored by Corobrik.

In addition to the court, three other projects were given excellence awards:

• Beauf Constance, a family residence on a wine estate in Constantia, by Metropolis Design;
• Singita Lebombo, a tourist facility in the Kruger National Park, by omm Design Workshop;
• the South African Embassy in Berlin, by MMA Architects.

Over 30 projects completed during 2003 and 2004 were submitted for the award, and adjudication took place during May, June and July last year. Twenty-nine projects received the SAIA Award of Merit, and four of those were selected for the excellence award.

In 2005 the court received two other awards: a merit award from the Gauteng Institute for Architecture; the Building Project winner of the Fulton Concrete Award of the Concrete Society of Southern Africa.

The building has received accolades from other architects.

"The architecture possesses an African grandeur, dignity and great scale resulting from the building of grand voids, rather than eurocentric grand solids; not grand form, but grand space. It is a building to be physically experienced, not seen from a distance; a building carefully made, people-friendly, culturally respectful and responsive, a beacon on the hill serving as a marker in the urban landscape," say architects Thorsten Deckler, Anne Graupner and Henning Rasmuss in their book Contemporary South Africa Architecture in a Landscape of Transition.

Two months ago the corrugated iron construction walls went down around the western and southern edges of the site, as the project neared completion. Now the site is accessible from both the east and the west, showing off its welcoming walkways and attractive textures around the court building. Some buildings still need to be renovated: the old Queen Victoria Hospital and the Old Fort; and the recreation grounds in the north-east corner.

The site can accommodate just over 1 600 cars in its six-level basement parking, and large circular spaces will function as exhibition and outdoor decks. A museum, a hotel, a coffee shop, a tourist office and retail space were part of the original plan, and still need to be completed. – Lucille Davie

Article courtesy of City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za).

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