“The building’s modernist form — a staircase-like tower — was kept largely intact, impressing with its pre-cast concrete panels and strip windows.”
For the thrill | Noero Architects
A scarlet eye blinks in the distance, a sharp flash against the black sky. Through morning and night, its pulse persists. Crowning one of Cape Town’s highest spires, the crimson light is a beacon amongst the dense high-rise buildings in Cape Town’s CBD. In 1993, when the building’s antenna was originally built, a helicopter was flown in to complete the work. Now, on the 28th floor of Hotel Sky, the tower’s spark is associated with the Sky-Hi Ride, a circular-seated drop overlooking the city at 146 m above ground and plunging at a speed of up to 100 km/hour.
For over three decades, the building was an office block known as the Metlife Centre. Noero Architects inherited architect Douglas Roberts’ work rather optimistically: its central location and proximity to tourist attractions and business hubs, like the International Convention Centre, placed it perfectly for the hospitality industry. Converting office spaces into a 550-bed hotel took immense courage: with an 8,4 m structural grid, three rooms are sardined at 2,2 m each and the prestressed concrete floor demanded intense accuracy — lacing all services (like pipes) between the prestressed wires without cutting them.
Architect and founder Jo Noero is sincere in his philosophy that ‘each and every building can be improved over time.’ Improvements, here, were largely on the ground floor lobby and rooftop, which includes two swimming pools that appear to ‘hang off’ the timber decks. The building’s modernist form — a staircase-like tower — was kept largely intact, impressing with its pre-cast concrete panels and strip windows. Only additional openings were added, small and indecipherable, to improve ventilation. While your eye may once have been led up the staircase, its post-Noero transformation leads you in the other direction — down. You catch the red flash first, noticing its slender, 40-metre tower guiding you to the HOTEL SKY sign (lit in jarring red) alongside the topmost edge of the build. The futuristic light stretches to the corner, where you follow steps dropping at the building’s side — down, down, down to the lobby and right into the city itself.
‘Jigsaw puzzle’ | Savage + Dodd Architects
The postmortem of an unused 1980’s shopping centre on the outskirts of Johannesburg revealed its domestic-like scale and close proximity to the Boksburg CBD, a neighbouring church, and civic buildings. Deemed to have strong conversion potential, the building’s new existence was designed by Savage + Dodd Architects, a firm with decades of experience in transforming offices and factories into housing.
‘There’s a misconception that affordable housing isn’t designed,’ says Dr Heather Dodd, co-founder of Savage + Dodd Architects and doctoral graduate from the University of the Free State. ‘But good design and bad design can cost the same amount. It’s about understanding how design really matters.’ Affordable but well-designed spaces provide the essentials while allowing flexibility for residents to personalise their home over time — perhaps upgrading to a glass shower door or changing the kitchen cupboards. Slava Village, accommodating 50 units consisting of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, contributes towards reviving the mining town in decline. Every setback brought a countering opportunity. Deep space? A chance for New York–style loft bedrooms and walkways that open into courtyards. Tight budget? Bright colours are a cost-effective way to brighten the space and distinguish areas. Describing the adaptive reuse design process, Heather Dodd says, ‘It’s like a jigsaw puzzle trying to figure out how it all fits together.’
The architect’s agency | Local Studio
For centuries, theorists and practitioners alike have questioned the architect’s place in building society. For Thomas Chapman, founder of Local Studio, his adaptive reuse projects have shown just how proactive architects might be, shifting the traditional client-architect relationship in the process.
Local Studio’s interventions almost always originate from a well-versed understanding of history — an inquiry into a building’s stories. Such is the case with this community centre and library in Soweto, Johannesburg. Lantern House was first imagined through a theoretical framework: Sub-city, an urban acupuncture intervention targeting South Africa’s thousands of defunct substations from the apartheid era. Why this typology? ‘They’re obsolete the minute they’re built,’ Thomas explains. ‘Technology modernises much quicker than buildings take to build.’
Sub-city began as a speculative project, commissioned by Interactive Africa, the founders of the Design Indaba conference, who had secured seed funding from corporate giant Sanlam for a series of urban acupuncture projects across South Africa. This complex chain became even more complicated as the project was set to become a reality. Taking on what would usually be a developer’s role, Local Studio’s architects identified a burnt-out substation in Eldorado Park, near an existing social housing development in Soweto, which would serve as the first Sub-city prototype. What followed were months of administrative setbacks, navigating land rights and ownership. Restructuring the architect’s role began with a different kind of project pitch to appeal to investors. ‘Even something like a community centre needs a business plan,’ Thomas adds.
At only 34 m², the substation’s tight frame was unfit for the size of the community. Local Studio chose mass timber to extend the original brick structure. Inside, the timber’s warm, electric glow spans three storeys housing a maker’s space and an amphitheatre, a library, a digital learning wing overlooking the park, and a counselling room. Its roof leaves no space wasted, featuring a terrace where one can watch over Soweto. With the body corporate effectively owning the library, Lantern House strengthens its ties with the social housing community, offering a hub for recreation and company.
