For the past 15 years, Hilton Lawrence Architecture has been leaving its footprint on Durban’s landscape. Here are two of their more prominent recent projects.
Hilton Lawrence Architecture was established in 2008 and is responsible for a host of top-end residential, commercial and industrial building designs around the country, including two stand-out projects in Durban – the Rewardsco complex in Ridgeside and DSV in Riverhorse.
Rewardsco
Ridgeside is a four-precinct development that occupies the sea-facing triangle created by uMhlanga Rocks Drive and two major highways, the M4 and the M41. It supplements the uMhlanga Ridge Town centre and creates a mixed-used environment along the primary transport route of uMhlanga Rocks Drive.
Sitting on the prominent south-west corner of the site the new Rewardsco building completes a vision outlined in 2018. This five-storey structure acts as the southern anchor to the Rewardsco campus and is a bold architectural statement with a five star green building rating. The final phase of the development gave us the opportunity to create a central landscaped public open space between the three buildings that integrate staff with the outdoor space via pedestrian walkways filled with trees, water features, benches and “grassed” surfaces.
Our design for Rewardsco at Ridgeside includes high atriums with huge interior volume and sloped walls that echo the external architectural language and also assist with the acoustic properties. In one instance, a sealed white oak feature wall with aluminium linear graphics runs up behind three suspended internal bridge links to create a “warm” colour palette within the space. Ceilings are floated off the steel and concrete bridge links, and the linear recessed LED lighting complements the horizontal strength of the structures, while glass balustrades give prominence to the oak feature wall.
DSV Logistics
Riverhorse is situated adjacent to the N2 freeway and with good access to both the port and the N3 inland space. The DSV site, situated on the largest platform in the precinct, with excellent exposure and panoramic views south and inland was the home to one of the largest distribution centres in KZN. The original 60 000m² distribution centre was constructed in 2011, but unfortunately, during the July 2021 riots the entire facility was destroyed.
The clients, Zenprop Property Holdings, sought a suitable large end user to utilise the full bulk capabilities of the site. In December 2021 we set about designing and creating a new flagship distribution centre for DSV. With a strong international footprint and strict architectural guidelines the new facility had its own set of unique design challenges and we didn’t want to miss an opportunity to reinstate an architectural landmark on such a prominent site.
We designed a large distribution and racked warehouse component with a highly specified administration office and a central operations and staff facilities component. With its sweeping horizontal lines and unobstructed flush glazed facades the public and staff entry points are visible to traffic on the freeway. The centrally located three-level staff facilities component consists of two levels of operations offices while the third level houses the primary staff canteen and ablution facilities. Vehicle access to the yards are controlled at the primary entrance guardhouse and boom control point, and these yards service the various docked and on-grade doors servicing the warehouse.