December 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
44
Civil Engineering and Building Contractors (outside South Africa)
A
3
WINNER
Fairscape Precint, Gaborone (Botswana)
T
he project consists of an iconic 15 storey tower building and
two four storey buildings on a podium slab and three levels of
basement. The tower is designed to make the most of the inner
floor space, and, other than the core and the façade perimeter, has
no internal columns.
The vertical perimeter support is achieved by installing off-shutter
precast triangles (diagrids), which are placed on top of one another
and are then structurally joinedwith a 450mm thick coffer slab, span-
ning 18 meters, which is in turn joined to the central vertical core.
The diagrids are glazed, with the glass set back 500 mm from the
façade edge, providing solar shading and allowing maximum light
and optimal views for the tenants. The further environmental benefit
is that the building will better retain heat/coolness, thus easing the
load on the internal climate control system. Further, to reduce the
carbon footprint of the project, the use of 30% fly ash in all concrete
has been specified.
The slanted off-shutter columns and high level beams ensures
each façade is structurally and esthetically‘framed’, and with the four
quadrants of the building being respectively 10, 13, and 15 floors high,
it gives the building its unique ‘stepped-pinnacle; effect. A slanted
unitised curtainwall systemcloses the area between the slanted corner
columns of each quadrant.
As the floor to floor height is 4,25mhigh, versus the normal dimen-
sions of 3m, the tower, when completed with the last slanted beams,
will stand 85 meters tall, as tall as a 28-storey building.
It was clear that the construction of the diagrids and slanted
columns would dictate the pace, and as a 13 day cycle time was
required to achieve the programme, clever and unique systems had
to be developed to ensure success and completion of the project
within 24 months.
Due to the unique design and arguable remote location of
the project, adequate expertise was not available locally and the
majority of senior management and specialist subcontractors were
to be sourced from South Africa and relocated to Gaborone for this
exciting challenge.
Extensive skills transfer to local Botswana staff and labour would
however ensure the project meets the company’s localisation plan,
and a mentorship programme has been set in place to monitor and
manage this process. There are over 700 people working on the site
daily, which is expected to peak at 900 in the last quarter of 2013,
and it is estimated that approximately 300 of these employees
would be permanently employed by either Stefanutti Stocks or one
of the subcontractors.
All concrete is being batched on site, and except for the normal
challenges of site-batched concrete, the 30% fly ash requirement is
a first for Gaborone, and mix designs had to be carefully developed
to ensure structural specifications are met.
Project information
• Project name: Fairscape Precinct
• Company entering: Stefanutti Stocks Botswana
• Project start date: February 2012
• Project end date: March 2014
• Client: BDC (Botswana Development Corporation)
• Project team: Stefanutti Stocks Botswana
• Main contractor: Stefanutti Stocks Botswana
• Architect: Boogertman + Partners (Johannesburg)
• Principal agent: Brydens Botswana
• Project manager: Brydens Botswana
• Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon (AECOM)
• Consulting engineer: Pula Consultants
• Precast: SPE
• Project value: R367-million (excluding VAT)
BUILDING CONTRACTORS
