into the broader Sandton Central area on foot.
Ground floor has two restaurants, a coffee shop,
retail outlets, the first Discovery Bank branch,
the Wellness Centre where clients can have
their Vitality assessments done, a Woolworths
and auditoriums for events and announcements.
The ground floor opens into the atrium spaces,
connecting visitors to the working floors above
visually and spatially.
The first floor is for training and meeting
rooms. The second floor to seventh floors have
the working office spaces that are not accessible
to the public unless by appointment. This is the
core of the company. Each floor plate has two
large pause/break away areas opening into the
atrium spaces, as well as agile spaces that allow
for different ways of working and interacting.
There are a number of meeting rooms per floor
for departments and employees to meet and
interact with one another. These are concentrated
in the core to allow for maximum flexibility on the
floor plates. Including Phase 2, each floor plate
measures over 10,000m 2 . It was very important for
Discovery to have as large a floor plate as possible
to maximise efficient interaction and planning of
their various departments.
Level 8 is where the gym is located as well
as access to the landscaped roof which extends
up to level 9. These areas are for Discovery
staff members, although various public events
are held there from time to time. The roof has a
620m running track, a multicourt for basketball,
netball and volleyball and a separate soccer court.
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There are spaces for yoga classes and external
seating areas. Level 9 of the Phase 2 tower will
house the new Healthy Food Studio, where
Discovery will host ‘masterchef’ cooking classes
to promote holistic, healthy eating.
Architectural Challenges
A key feature of the building is the floating ‘nose’ of
the West Tower which projects over the Katherine/
Rivonia intersection. To make a statement that
fitted with the scale of the building, the architects
needed to cantilever 17.5m over six floors. This
posed a significant structural challenge that was
eventually solved with the introduction of three
massive concrete beams that project over the
length of the cantilever. The floors were then
suspended from these beams on steel, concrete
filled, columns.
The external façade was also a tricky issue to
resolve. In Boogertman + Partners’ pitch they
had presented a building with an undulating white
camisole over dark blue glazing. Initially they had
thought that the façade would be a ventilated
façade with the external skin receiving a fritted
pattern to create the ‘solid’ white look. After being
awarded the project, and researching and resolving
this façade, they came to the realisation that the
frit would be very visually obstructive from within
the building, impacting on the fantastic views from
the site. It also became apparent that the ventilated
façade was not the right solution for the building
economically, however the team all agreed that
the expressive undulating camisole was a key
1 Discovery Place