WINNER: REBCON ENGINEERING (PTY) LTD, "TIMEBALL TOWER DURBAN POINT PRECINCT"
The purpose of constructing the Timeball Tower had both historical and architectural impact on the new Durban Point Development. From a historical perspective, in the early 1900’s Durban Port had a Timeball tower which played an important role in advising ships entering the port, what the local time was. The design team on this project wanted to incorporate this historical importance into the structure. From an architectural perspective the structure symbolizes the origin of the public focal point and the Point Waterfront development namely the information kiosk, amphitheater and ablution bloc and provides a link between the various icons within the development. The architectural design was undertaken by Rodney Choromanski, of CNN Architects, and the structural design was undertaken by Leezane Greyling of Arup Consulting Engineers and Linda Ness of Linda Ness Associates cc. The architect’s concept was modeled using wire as a sculpting medium, and the challenge to recreate this filigree effect could only be realized with the use of structural steel.
HIGHLY COMMENDED PROJECTS: SIGNLAND, KFC SIGNAGE NEWCASTLE
When KFC in South Africa (Yum Restaurants International) rolled out their new Blademan look for their freestanding stores in August 2008, their first two prototype stores were somewhat of a disappointment. When the next store came up in Empageni, the local franchisee insisted on Signland doing the construction of the Blade walls as well as the signage. The project was a resounding success with Alistair Gledhill (the Development Director of Yum!) reportedly having said that this particular store sets the benchmark for all new inline stores on the continent.
