High-tech and nature fuse into a big ‘Y’ello the future” as I enter MTN’s new headquarters, appropriately called the Innovation Centre, in 14th Avenue, Fairlands, Johannesburg. Through the harmonious blending of these seemingly paradoxical concepts, the architects have met a long list of criteria to give meaningful expression to the terms ‘sustainable” and ‘green” within this new complex.
Sustainable building methods are embodied in Phase 1 of the building, already in use for the past 18 months. Similar principles are now being applied in the Phase 2 complex, which will be completed in February 2005.
The architects, Boogertman & Partners, have complied with the criteria and guidelines of the Sustainable Building Assessment Tool developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. These criteria incorporate social, economic and environmental elements. Among the social requirements that have driven the design is that the built environment serves the needs of people.
These translate into a sensual experience of architectural elements: materials, space, lighting, temperature, sound control and elimination of health hazards.
Most importantly, they articulate the way the architecture facilitates communication.
Economic and environmental aspects include conservation of energy in lighting, water consumption, air conditioning, flexibility in ‘churning” spaces through movable walls, as well as interior and exterior landscaping.
To meet the challenges of sustainability, the designers had to work out how to house 2 500 staff members in a building which will cover 50 000m2 on a site of approximately 262 000m2 without dwarfing them into insignificance.
The answer, explains design director Bob van Bebber as we walk through the impressive Phase 1 building, was to divide the space into two complexes, connected by an enclosed bridge. The first phase of 25 000m2 already contains 1 250 employees. The second phase of similar size will accommodate a further 1 250.
Although vast in themselves, ‘humanisation” of the spaces was achieved through innovative design solutions — ‘innovation” obviously being a driving principle for both architects and client. The designers have created an impression of human proportions and interconnectedness without compromising a sense of spaciousness that subtly communicates the notion that this is where creative ideas can flourish.
At the same time, the design takes into account the main function of their client. ‘MTN deals primarily in communication. That’s what they sell. Our design therefore focused on architectural devices that would enhance or support this function,” says Van Bebber.
These design solutions start with the basic ground plan and continue in the planning of workspace, walls and floors. The floor plan is based on part of the human hand — the upper part of the palm with four fingers attached. The palm forms an enclosed ‘street” where public and staff can mingle. This section contains lifts and staircases to reach the five floors and gives access to relaxation areas in the form of two restaurants.
Each finger, replicated vertically into three floor levels, represents a wing comprising open-plan working areas. The spaces in between the fingers are landscaped atriums. They extend from basement to roof to form an uninterrupted airy space. ‘Staff have a view on to the atrium from where they sit at their desks. They are also visually connected with colleagues on other levels across the atrium,” explains Van Bebber.
The open-plan work area also supports the company’s idea of communication, but they have taken the idea a little further than in most other open-plan designs. At MTN everybody, managers included, shares the same work space. Only nine executives who report directly to the CEO have individual offices, but even these are visually and psychologically connected to the rest of the workforce because their walls are of glass.
Transparency, with all this implies, is the idea behind the see-through walls. They are also a feature of the meeting rooms at the outer ends of the work space. Whereas their outer walls jut outwards through the front façade like birdcages, their internal glass walls connect them to the rest of the staff.
‘It’s amazing how this design has already achieved far better internal relationships between staff members,” says Neal Allen, MTN client representative on the project.
Adding to the pleasant working environment is the comfortable size of work stations. ‘We recognise the psychological effect of uncluttered space and how it improves productivity and creativity,” says Allen. Referring to the old concept of private offices, he adds, ‘The space an organisation gives to you is your weakest power base. The stronger one is what you create for yourself through your efforts to perform.”
How many companies allocate seven square metres of desk and working space plus two additional metres of circulation space, totalling nearly 10m2, per employee — Allen’s ‘weakest power base”? This is without taking into account the pause areas or the indoor gardens.
Gardens introduce environmental aspects into the concept of sustainable, green buildings. These include the harmonisation of nature with high-tech design, as well as stimulating the aesthetic sensibilities of people.
How close do the designers manage to bring nature into the minds of the staff during office hours? Indigenous trees have been planted in the parking area, linking up with the shrubbery around the outdoor restaurant, which includes a fountain and waterfall to drown out unpleasant traffic noise. The transparent walls help to bring the outside in.
Besides the naturalistic gardens, allusions to nature are made in the forms of the stylised steel columns of the atriums, which double up as roof-bearing structures, and resemble the branches of a huge tree reaching up to the roof.
In this way, the architects fuse high-tech and nature. They also realise another facet of their brief, which was to create ‘a building that reflects the image of a technology company which is first and foremost South African, then African, and also a company with international [off the African continent] aspirations for the future,” says Von Bebber. ‘We chose materials such as steel, stainless steel, aluminium, glazing. And we exposed all the structural elements — weights and pulleys and cables, the cage-like lift — to show off technology.”
An African feel is reflected in the warm, earthy tones and rough textures. The reddish tint of the African soil is provided by stone cladding, even though this originates from the city of Agra in India.
Mosaic patterns wind snake-like through the entire baked porcelain-tiled ‘street”. Local artist Marco Cianfanelli was commissioned to design and produce this floor, ‘based on street designs typical of Brazil and Portugal,” says Van Bebber. ‘Where the lines meet, Cianfanelli has created cryptic symbols of communication such as hands, or a face that talks.”
The tactile effect of the mosaic has been continued at the bottom of the perforated steel columns to demonstrate unequivocally that high tech and art — read nature, read human values — can be synchronised.
Human values, represented by works of art, will be carried through in the design of Phase 2 . The glass-enclosed bridge that will connect it with Phase 1 will house an extensive collection of contemporary South African art. Sculpture will be displayed in the landscaped garden.
Art work will also be used to symbolise MTN’s connection with the six African countries in which the company operates. Artists from these countries will exhibit their work on removable screens attached to the bridge.
Certain areas in Phase 2 will be finished with hand-made textures that will also represent the African countries, further evidence of nature, art and technology being able to coexist harmoniously in a well-designed environment.
Although a large budget is required to create a world-class building of this kind, sound economic principles were applied during all phases of designing and construction, in particular in the design of heating/cooling systems and lighting. Over the long term, savings will come from effective use of energy.
The air handling units, which make use of chilled water for temperature control, are equipped with an economy cycle and an evaporative cooling section. When outside conditions are moderate, between 12 and 23 degrees Celsius, the economy cycle activates and provides full outside air to the building. This reduces the need for cooling from the more costly chilled water system and allows better air quality in the building.
When the system operates in economy mode, it first activates the evaporative cooling system and attempts to meet the cooling demand of the building with a natural system. Some degree of benefit is provided in this way for approximately 70% of the time. If the temperature in the building rises, the evaporative cooling system is deactivated and chilled water is used to meet the cooling demand.
In addition, temperature control in individual work areas is highly flexible. In 60m2 zones within the larger open-plan space, different temperatures can be selected to suit the preferences of staff in that particular area.
Natural light entering through the windows provides psychological benefits for staff, but to ensure reasonable degrees of comfort the level of sunlight has to be controlled. This is effected through the manipulation of movable metal sun screens, while passive control is also provided by the cigar-shaped concrete columns on the outside of the western façade of the building. Constructed of unpainted concrete, these serve as vertical sunscreens as well as roof supports.
The flexibility of design for altering work spaces and for creating temporary exhibition or lecture areas by means of moveable, acoustic wall panels have also proved to be cost effective, says Allen. ‘With the minimum of disturbance of personnel we can resize a department without anybody being kept from their desks.”
The design leads to massive savings each year when one considers that, in conventional buildings such as MTN’s Sandton offices, churn involves breaking down and rebuilding walls to create new office space, all of which has a highly disturbing impact on employees.
This flexibility spills over into the ‘access floor” design. The carpeted floor is in reality the lid of a utility space covered by large square panels resting on pedestals. I watched as Allen stooped to lift one and reveal bundles of electrical cables neatly snaking their way through the under-floor area. The cabling reticulation enhances the high-tech feel of the building.
‘You can plonk a workstation down anywhere, lift a floor tile and somewhere really close by you will find mains power plugs, UPS power plugs, generator power plugs, data points and phone connections,” says Allen.
With regard to the economy of sun-shading a building so abundantly clad in glass walls, Allen explains: ‘We built a model of the whole building and put it into a machine called a solara-scope. In the solarascope it is possible to simulate the sun traversing the sky at different times of year. We did this to find out how and where the sun would slant into the building at different times of day or in different seasons. Sunshades were then designed to limit this solar penetration to an acceptable level.
‘If one looks at the front façade of the building with its massive glass panels in front of the street, you will see the roof-supporting columns have a narrow oval shape. They are sunshades as well as roof supports.”
The windows on the north and south façades are double-glazed and tinted a light green shade. These have a shading effect as well as keeping out unwanted noise and heat. These sunshades economise on the energy that would have been necessary in the air-cooling system. And although the window frontage of the buildings is generous, the ratio of glazed walls to floor area makes the building highly thermally efficient.
Safety precautions for the staff, the building and its neighbourhood have been dealt with in a 21st-century manner. ‘In the event of fire in the computer room, sensors activate a low-pressure gas discharge. That will extinguish a fire within six seconds. The computer area is protected by special walls and doors that have a two-hour fire protection rating,” assures Allen.