Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa March_April 2015_Watershed

V & A Waterfront

CLIENT / DEVELOPER

Tel: 021 408 7500

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.waterfront.co.za

WSP Group Africa

MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

Tel: 021 481 8700


Web: www.wspgroup.com

MacKenzie Hoy Consulting Engineers

ACOUSTIC CONSULTANTS

Tel: 021 531 4452


Web: www.machoyrsa.com

Pentad Quantity Surveyors

QUANTITY SURVEYORS

Tel: 011 548 4000


Web: www.pentadqs.com

GIBB

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

Tel: 021 469 9100


Web: www.gibb.co.za

Solutions for Elevating (S4E)

ELEVATOR CONSULTANTS

Tel: 086 122 2556


Web: www.s4e.co.za

Basil Nair & Associates


Tel: 021 948 3033


Web: www.basilnair.co.za

SolutionStation Consulting Engineers

FIRE CONSULTANTS

Tel: 021 531 0051


Web: www.solutionstation.co.za

WBHO Construction

MAIN CONTRACTOR

Tel: 021 532 5100


Web: www.wbho.co.za

WATERSHED V&A WATERFRONT, CAPE TOWN

58 the watershed

The WatershedThe project was conceptualised as a collection of individual

buildings under the cover of the existing shed, thus approaching

sustainability through a passive design strategy

THE WATERSHED

v&a waterfront, Cape town

DEVELOPER/CLIENT

v & a waterfront

ARCHITECTS

Wolf Architects

QUANTITY SURVEYORS

pentad Quantity surveyors

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

lh Consulting engineers

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

GiBB


Basil nair & associates

wsp Group africa

FIRE CONSULTANTS

solutionstation

ACOUSTIC CONSULTANTS

mackenzie hoy Consulting

engineers

ENVIRONMENTAL

CONSULTANTS

Greenbuild Consultants

ELEVATOR CONSULTANTS

solutions for elevating

WIND CONSULTANT

adam Goliger

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

julian raxworthy

LAND SURVEYOR

david hellig & abrahamse

WORKSHOP 17 – INTERIOR

ARCHITECTS

metropolis design

MAIN CONTRACTOR

wBho Construction

TEXT

v & a waterfront

mackenzie hoy Consulting

engineers

PHOTOGRAPHY

marc hoberman

PROJECT

The V&A Waterfront’s newest mixed-use development, the Watershed, has been open to the public since October 2014. The building was historically an electrical warehouse and, in more recent years, was divided up into the Blue Shed craft

market on the one side and the Maritime Museum on the other. The Maritime Museum then moved and the space was sitting vacant.

DEVELOPER’S REPORT

The V&A Waterfront was looking to increase the footfall in a traditionally scarce area of the precinct and increasing trading density for the market traders. The V&A approached architect, Heinrich Wolff, to look at the space. Wolff proposed not only using the vacant space, but knocking through to the Blue Shed and re-envisaging the space completely. The V&A supported this idea and the Watershed concept was born.

South African cities are becoming increasingly segregated and compartmentalised. The Watershed is a contribution to better city-making. The design concept stemmed from the intention to create a sustainable urban condition that supports a market economy. This is done by the creation of a street through the workshop, thereby linking the aquarium to the rest of the V&A Waterfront. This urban gesture offers substantial beneit to the surrounding context, creating opportunities for other urban role players to beneit from. The buildings inside the shed address the pedestrian street with a 50m x 50m columnless, suspended steel structure lying over the street, releasing the potential activities of the street.

the watershed 59

60 the watershed

The pedestrian street created through the

Watershed creates a vital urban connection

between the main active area around the shopping centre precinct and the Clock Tower Precinct on the one side and the aquarium, the bus stop, the GSB campus and new BRT stops on the other. Wolff Architects designed what has been dubbed ”the loating loor” – a suspended structure that makes a 50m x 50m gridded steel slab over the market.

The loating loor meant that the activity of the street below could be complemented by another type of space, running

perpendicularly overhead. This substantially

increases the diversity and intensity of human

interaction in the street.

The OfferingThe ground loor of the building is now home to some 150 small business owners selling a multitude of arts and crafts, representing over

365 local brands. This is complemented by a

Wellness offering upstairs – contributing a

range of treatments for the mind, body and

soul. The consolidation of the Blue Shed and Red Shed traders into one space provided valuable retail space within the Victoria Wharf for the introduction of new international retail offerings.

A 1,000m2 exhibition space over two loors attracts locals to the V&A with a peak visitor low of 500 per hour. The space hopes to be home to some of the top exhi-

bitions in the world, with Art of the Brick being

the irst exhibition. The inal element to the Watershed is the

soon to be completed Workshop 17 offering on the irst and second loors. Workshop 17, operated by Open Workspaces, will be a social innovation and co-working space, offering a desk rental model with communal working facilities which will tap into a new model for small and start-up businesses, bringing

diversity to the V&A Waterfront.

TechnicalThe project was conceptualised as a collection of individual buildings under the cover of the

existing shed, thus approaching sustainability

through a passive design strategy. Therefore

the majority of the building is treated as an

With the building being

more of a “street”,

the building is able to

make use of natural

ventilation in the

majority of the space

the watershed 61

external condition with natural ventilation and lighting, hugely reducing the services required. Services are predominantly grouped together in easily accessible locations ensuring simple

access for maintenance. Existing conditions were embraced throughout the building with original loor trenches being used for electrical reticulation throughout the ground-

loor. All the services throughout the building are exposed and clearly identiiable therefore

simplifying the maintenance of the various

service runs.

The building was designed as a space for creativity. Research revealed that, in order

to stimulate creativity, individual’s required personal workspace combined with a sense of transparency. The large amounts of glazing, tiered sections and loor cut-outs promote a visual connectivity over multiple levels at a

distance. The new intervention into the shed

The ground loor of the building is now home

to some 150 small

business owners selling

a multitude of arts and

crafts, representing

over 365 local brands

62 the watershed

predominantly uses steel which relects and is in keeping with the original shed structure. The eficiency of steel allowed for services, acoustic treatment and structural elements to

all it within a 550mm deep loor, allowing for 3 levels inside the shed. Drywalls were mainly used for the enclosure of space, allowing for a change in the building’s use over time. Steel is treated as permanent whilst enclosures are treated as impermanent and therefore

adaptable over time.

Success since Opening Consolidating the two adjacent spaces translated into a trading space 50% larger that is able to accommodate a wider product offering from small business owners. The Watershed can be seen as a talent incubator

and the unique design of the building and resulting pedestrian street has increased

the footfall, giving tenants exposure to the

millions of local and international visitors the

V&A Waterfront welcomes annually. It has given the V&A the opportunity to build on its established small business platform for

further economic growth. The V&A have been overwhelmed with

how well the Watershed has performed since opening. The ground loor market has been a huge success– evidenced by

increased revenue and footfall - and has been

well received by the public. Interest in the Workshop 17 innovation space, even though it is not yet complete, has been high and it

appears that everybody wants to be a part of this unbelievable space.

SustainabilitySustainability is a core value underpinning the V&A Waterfront. Although the Watershed building does not have a green star rating,

it does have elements of green building

incorporated. For example, the re-use of the

existing structure (historical and electrical

SECTION

the watershed 63

warehouse) and re-use of some of the existing gum pole looring from when the building was an electrical warehouse.

With the building being more of a “street”, the building is able to make use of natural ventilation in the majority of the space, with mechanical ventilation in the exhibition,

meeting room and commercial areas. The

space also promotes an enhanced indoor

environmental quality – with plenty of natural light, access to views, acoustic separation between the various building uses, and the use of low VOC paints. Other sustainable initiatives include LED lighting, universal access, water metering, recycling waste storage & an eficient it-out.

ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT’S COMMENT

Heinrich Wolff, James Pierre du Plessis and Adam Clemens of Wolff Architects

called Mackenzie Hoy Consulting Acoustics Engineers (aka “Machoy”) and asked for acoustics and noise control input on a revamp

of the Blue Shed and Workshop 17 building at the Waterfront, Cape Town. It had occurred to the architects that the buildings housed

an overhead crane gantry, rated at some

tonnes. This implied that if the building

structure could take the side force of a gantry crane, then the building could be itted with a mezzanine loor, suspended on cables. If you then removed the walls at either end of the building, you get a new building open to pedestrian trafic, double volume, 100 m long skylight, an astonishing massive hanging loor, 150 traders stalls, 1,000m2 of exhibitions

space with windows overlooking a busy working drydock where metal shot blasting of ships is common.

In short, in terms of acoustics and noise

control, you get every single problem relating

to acoustics and noise which a building can have: Double volumes are big and echo rich with conversation stopping and market noise enhancing properties. Skylights are great for light, and let in outside noise; massive hanging loors can resonate and resonate until a few foot falls sound like the steps of an approaching hippo and then, of course, there

is the outside noise of the Robinson drydock where they remove paint from ships using steel shot air-blasted onto the hull of the dry-

docked ship and which sounds just like steel shot air-blasted..etc etc, only louder.

Machoy Senior Engineer (Acoustics), Rachel Viljoen, was given the project and provided solutions to all of the issues. Particularly

innovative was the use of Marmoleum Decibel vinyl loor on the mezzanine deck which provided both footfall and resonance control of the hanging loor as well and sound absorption for the double volume. The use

of Gyptone Ringitone plasterboard further solved many of the acoustics problems.

Noise from the ground loor traders was also controlled by specialised absorber

panels; however, control is not 100% since budget issues saw a number of acoustic recommendations being discarded. However, the result is still very, very good. First prize to Wolff Architects for the concept design and

clever insight into the mezzanine support. Special rosette to structural engineer, Tom Linder, who designed the loor suspension and, when Machoy asked what the loor resonant frequency was, he knew the answer and it was right. From Blue Shed and Workshop to Watershed.

Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa March_April 2015_Watershed

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