Our clients South City, a well-established financial institution in Port Elizabeth, approached us in 2013 to find them a suitable piece of land on which to design and build their new home.

Their existing building on the corner of Rink and Parliament Street was constructed in the 1960s and the area had become unsafe and unsuitable for them. After looking at a few sites, a suitable site was found in 9th Ave, Walmer.

The design brief was a challenge in that the clients wanted to be able to expand their operations if need be, into the future, as well as, if they decided to shrink their operations, to be able to let space to tenants.

The size of the land was also tight, so in order to create enough parking, we had to design a semi basement which the sloping site allowed us to do quite successfully.

As a financial institution they could not be seen to be using other people’s investments to build something fanciful, so we intentionally set out to design something that sat elegantly in its surroundings and something which endeavoured to be understated and solid.

The palette we chose consisted of natural materials. One of the elements used was off shutter concrete- we incorporated a purpose made shuttering system. SA Pine, a renewable resource, was sandblasted and lined into the shuttering.  This provided us with an off shutter concrete finish that is warm, honest and maintenance free.