Architects working on the Sandton City refurbishment have looked to the protea for inspiration, writes Craig Jacobs

Florals  have long been a mainstay of fashion - witness the wry comment by Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, who dismissed a suggestion by an underling with the line: "Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking ..."

But what would the fashion tsarina think of the growing fascination for floral architecture? At last year's Shanghai Expo, a highlight of the UK Pavilion was the Seed Cathedral, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, which took its cue from the lines of a dandelion.

The lotus flower is popular in Asian architecture - the Bahá'í House of Worship in Delhi is known as the Lotus Temple because of its design, while the newly opened ArtScience Museum in Singapore pays homage to this divine symbol.

Soon Gautengwill feature a rendering of SA's national flower as the new Protea Court, which forms part of a massive R1.77-billion refurbishment of Sandton City's south-east extension. It will open in November.

The court will be topped by a 40m dome made up of 250 tons of steelwork and clad in an energy efficient material called ethylene tetrafluor0ethylene, or ETFE.

It marks the beginning of a massive new push on the part of Sandton City and other developers in the area to turn this pocket of Sandton into the Dubai of Africa.

The court's dome, which gently tilts towards the road in the area flanked by Sandton Drive and Rivonia Road, forms the entrance to an area spanning 30000 square metres of new retail space, which will be home to more than 60 new tenants, led by trendy Spanish fashion retailer Zara.

"The ETFE roof over the new main court was designed as a stylised protea flower and we tilted it to give a presence to Rivonia Road," explained the lead architect on the project, Tia Kanakakis, from principle architects MDS Architecture, about the dome. "The material is extremely long-lasting and doesn't degrade under ultraviolet light and pollution."

Another feature of the dome is that it will be able to change colour at night or produce a "light show" thanks to an intelligent LED lighting system.

Developers in the Sandton node are focused on capitalising on the increased access to the area thanks to the new Gautrain station, with various other projects in the pipeline. These include the R3-billion Mutual Place mixed-use office development project and the Sandton Skye residential complex off Grayston Drive.

But, if the architects behind what is touted as the "long-term vision" for Sandton City have their way, that distinctive protea dome is just the precursor to a massive overhaul of the shopping complex which, if all goes according to plan, will see ETFE panels extending as veils over new high-rise office towers.

RESOURCE: Times Live Online

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