Ehlanzeni District Municipality Building Complex
Aligning Culture With Chic Designs
The development’s design, informed by the client’s brief, required adequate office space for all officials and full-time councillors; a council chamber with all necessary support facilities and adequate; and safe parking for all staff and visitors. Design-wise, the building had to be representative of the local Swazi culture, the municipality’s coat of arms and had to be relevant to the Lowveld environment and climate.
With Dietrich Ungerer Design Studio (DUDS) heading the design team the task was to create a modern, relevant building design that not only fits it function, but also one that incorporates many thematic representations.
The result culminated in a three-storey building complex comprising of three separate blocks; poised in a way which represents a Swazi homestead with the central, circular main building (containing the public facilities and the Council Chamber) representing the chief’s hut in a traditional sense.
The new headquarters for the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, through its design and technological innovations, will seamlessly promote more efficiency in the operations of the local government.
Drawing inspiration from the two doves on the municipality’s coat-of-arms, two administration buildings (north and west wings) embrace the main building, this theme is further carried out on the main building’s shield-shaped roof, which also appears on the coat-of-arms. The building’s architectural language manages to utilise elements from both the municipality’s coat-of-arms and Swazi culture without being clichéd or crude.
The north and west wings comprise offices for the administration of the Municipality and consists of a single department per floor. Usually in such offices, the top executives or department heads are tucked away from ready access on the top floors of a building. That is not the case in these buildings. Due to a universal move of government entities for transparency, increasing their accessibility and openness, the internal layout of the building has brought the top echelons of each department ‘to the people’ by placing them on the ground floor.
Dietrich Ungerer of DUDS says, “An interesting deviation from normal office design is the placing of the offices of the heads of the organisation on the ground floor. This is to emphasise the accessibility of the Municipal Manager and the Executive Mayor to the general public.”
The central building houses, on the ground floor, the public areas like the tender room, cashiers and main security areas as well as the offices of the Speaker and the Chief Whip. On the first floor is the Council Chamber then the floor above features function areas for the Council.
A glance at the ceiling of the Council will reveal the shield-shaped roof and the fact that it is naturally lit. The physical form of the Council Chamber protrudes to the outside and will be a focal point during functions at night and is envisaged to emphasise the ‘guiding’ function of the Council.
Technological Innovations
Sophisticated technology has been implemented throughout the entire building. These include motion sensors that control the lights; biometric scanners for access-control; and modern visual and audio facilities for the Council Chamber.
Furthermore, with the industry-wide shift to environmental conscientiousness, the development has incorporated a number of ‘green’ solutions. Some of the more substantial applications include heat sensors in the roof of the atrium that activate electronic window openers allowing hot air to escape when the temperature rises above a certain level. This feature doubles as a fire safety feature for smoke extraction from the building during a fire.
Other energy efficient applications include solar geysers, motion sensors (activating and deactivating the light switches); door closers to all balcony doors (minimising loss of cool air when doors are opened); and water reticulation systems for rainwater and condensate from the AC plant that will be collected in a grey-water tank and used to in the ablution facilities as well as for irrigation.
Managing Potential Disasters
Included within the contract of the Ehlazeni District Municipality offices is the Disaster Management Centre (DMC). Its purpose is to coordinate disaster management activities of the district and to link with all five local municipalities under its jurisdiction in the event of a disaster.
The DMC is a stand-alone building comprising a basement housing parking and store facilities; a ground floor that can be divided into three conference facilities with maximum capacity of 400 seats; and a first floor that houses the disaster management centre. Segmented into four sections, the ground floor consists of a media centre; a joint operations centre; a tactical room; and the emergency centre with radio transmission capability.
The centre’s use will also be extended to be the primary DMC for the host city of Nelspruit during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Its construction had to be fast-tracked in order to be handed over to FIFA in time. During the World Cup, the emergency room will receive information on disaster events occurring in and around the soccer venues through either telephone satellite link or radio frequency.
The information will be dispatched to the tactical room where highly technical disaster personnel will analyse the data received from the emergency centre and transfer it to the Joint Operation Centre where decisive action will be taken.
Recognising the need for legacy usage after the World Cup, the centre also doubles as a conference centre, as its movable and stackable partitioning creates a myriad of different spaces in various configurations satisfying a variety of conferencing demands.
Low to No Maintenance
It was important for all structures on site to be made of maintenance-free material. Recognising this the predominate building materials are face brick façade with a combination of stone cladding, sandstone and slate tiles; aluminium windows and louvers; Chromadeck finished roof sheeting; and plethora of natural colours internally to compliment the building’s exterior.
The interplay of natural materials with high-tech elements follows the design concept of combining the cultural heritage with modern office design principles; the result is a structure that seamlessly blends into the environment, while being highly visible and not obtrusive to its setting.
PROJECT TEAM
CLIENT: EHLAZENI DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY
PRINCIPAL AGENT, PROJECT MANAGERS & QUANTITY SURVEYORS: PASQA AFRICA PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANTS
CIVIL ENGINEERS: ENDECON UBUNTU CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
ARCHITECT: DIETRICH UNGERER DESIGN STUDIO
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (joint venture): PIENAAR EN ERWEE DUDUMA ENGINEERS
MECHANICAL ENGINEERS: MAREPO cc
LEGAL CONSULTANT / REPRESENTATIVE: MNISI ATTORNEYS
