The Apex on Smuts, a new ‘Manhattan-style’ apartment building in the heart of Rosebank, Johannesburg, which is now one of the city’s hottest urban nodes, offers the modern city dweller everything they could want in chic, urban living.
The recently-completed building designed by Messaris Wapenaar Cole Architects (MWCA) is hard to miss with its striking, contemporary architecture.
The prominent unusually-shaped site on the corner of Jan Smuts and Hood Avenues presented the architects with the opportunity to design a building with "real urban presence". André Wapenaar, the partner in charge of the project at MWCA, says they felt it was important for the building to “address its position at an urban scale and to have iconic character”.
The wedge-shaped building extends into the point of the triangular site, creating opportunities for attractive balconies with sweeping views. The three large rectangular panels on the façade echo similar existing forms in the adjacent building, and fulfil the functional purpose of housing sun louvres. The building is raised off the site at ground level, allowing for parking below the building while maintaining visual connectivity from one side of the site to the other across the corner.
A central atrium, which extends the full eight-storey height of the building, allows light into the interior of the building and is landscaped at first floor level.
The 72 apartments priced from R2.3 million are designed in a variety of types, ranging from one bed, one bath bachelor units to two bed, two bath units.
The apartments on the 7th and 8th floors have been combined to form a unique four bedroom penthouse. The interiors are chic but minimalist and finished in neutral tones, forming an understated but sophisticated ‘canvas’ onto which residents can imprint their personal styles.
Rosebank’s rapidly-developing residential market
The Apex on Smuts is one of several contemporary apartment buildings to go up in Rosebank. This established and gracious suburb has always had a residential component around it. Although the CBD, in particular, became rather tired at one stage, Rosebank has been undergoing rapid rejuvenation and has regained its former lustre as a commercial, residential and retail hub. This is thanks in large part to the construction of the Gautrain station, which has reinforced its practicality as a central location.
According to Wapenaar, when the developers first acquired the site, it was initially envisaged as the location for a new office development. He says at the time the property was bought, the Johannesburg City Council had started to implement new zonings in the Rosebank node, which allowed for higher bulk on many sites. This tied in with the government’s policy of densifying urban zones around major public transport nodes, he says.
Since there was an existing office building on the site, the original plan was to erect a second office block on what was a parking area at the time. Initially, there was a suggestion to rezone for a theatre and office complex, but with the increase in the number of office buildings being developed in the Rosebank precinct, the owners decided to rezone the site to enable apartments to be developed.
Wapenaar says by the time the scheme was launched as a residential apartment block in 2013, the increase in residential property prices had improved and continued to improve, thereafter, increasing The Apex on Smuts’s viability as a project.
Importantly, the growing trend towards urban living meant that a residential development here would be attractive to buyers in a way that it might not have been ten years earlier. Aside from the stylish, contemporary design of the building, the location has proven particularly attractive to residential buyers for its centrality and its proximity to train and bus routes.
With people increasingly buying into the vision of 'live-work-play' precincts, and with many being more conscious of living a ‘greener’ lifestyle - which includes making use of public transport and minimising travel distances - The Apex on Smuts speaks to those ideals and "looks into the future", says Wapenaar.
Its location in the heart of Rosebank, within walking distance of Rosebank Mall, TheZone@Rosebank, the Rosebank Gautrain Station and a variety of other lifestyle and leisure amenities, offers everything a modern city-dweller could want.
Green and sustainable city living
When it comes to including sustainable features in the building itself, several energy efficient measures have been incorporated, such as the use of sun-shading to mitigate solar heat gain along portions of the façades and double performance glazing throughout the building.
All the individual apartments are supplied with natural gas for the purposes of cooking, heating and water heating, which decreases the load on the electrical grid and ultimately results in less pollution.
According to Wapennar, the building is integrated into the surrounding urban neighbourhood in such a way that it supports the use of public amenities and transport, which ties in with current thinking about urban efficiency, and about creating more socially and environmentally sustainable neighbourhoods. He says the fact that it is in the centre of an increasingly pedestrian-friendly environment implies reduced car usage.
“With its location at the south-western gateway to Rosebank, the building has a strong presence in the streetscape, contributing positively to the image of the urban environment while offering occupants spectacular views of the city, Florida Hills and the Magaliesburg,” says Wapennar. “It brings back the notion of chic city living as an integral part of a true mixed-use environment.”
For more information, email or contact Ralph on 082 410 1079.