Green buildings

We had been watching it being built for months now and finally the new upcycled shopping mall in Melville was ready for a soft opening this weekend. 27Boxes is a retail park designed for boutique style stores where artists, designers and crafts people can display and sell their custom works of art.

Fabricated entirely from shipping containers, 27Boxes is the first project of its kind in South Africa. The design combines shipping containers, garden plants and rolling lawns, together with other brick and concrete elements for a richly different look and feel.

27Boxes takes its design inspiration from shipping container developments in Europe such as Boxpark in London as well as earlier ground-breaking industrial design buildings such as the George Pompidou Centre in Paris.

There are two main shopping floors with a covered rooftop parking lot which looks like it would be a great place for a weekend organic food market.

Only about a quarter of the shops were open for business this inaugural weekend, but there was construction still going on all over the place and we saw many other shop keepers hanging their shingles and stocking up in anticipation of launching soon. And to allow for the anticipated traffic, underneath 27Boxes are 270 secure parking spaces!

And look what's coming - Philly cheese steaks!

Speaking of innovative building design, Vince just moved into the new IBM offices at 90 Grayston in the Sandton CBD. This four-star Green rated development features innovative technologies which minimise the buildings environmental impact. Passive design principles have been applied, along with active technologies such as harvested rainfall for flush toilets, the use of ammonia chillers for air conditioning and elevators equipped with energy-saving ReGen drives.

Other innovative features include intelligent blinds equipped with sensors that track the movement of the sun, adjusting the blinds accordingly, as well as LED backlighting of the glazed façade at nighttime. 

At least all the construction delays and overhead cranes dotting the sky-scape are resulting in some interesting and innovative buildings around Sandton. Maybe that will provide a little consolation next time I'm stuck in traffic.