PWC Tower
Workspace, Office, Head Office
The brief for the PWC tower was to create a landmark building that would represent the new Waterfall precinct. It is in a prominent location on the M1 motorway, connecting Johannesburg to the city of Tshwane. Positioned on the highest part of the Waterfall site, it would was intended to represent what was to come for the development as a whole. The tower was successful in identifying the Waterfall as a new high quality development. Since the completion of the tower the Waterfall development has achieved leasing activity much higher than in the rest of Johannesburg.
Client: AWIC + Attacq
Location: Waterfall, Johannesburg, SA
Size: 46,000m2 + 1503 parking bays
Cost: £48 million
Status: Completed (2020)
LEED Silver
We worked closely with Arup engineers to produce an elegant and cost effective structural solution. The assistance of the UK office as support was invaluable as a ‘sense’ check and peer review of the design. The tower twists 30 degrees over the 25 floors, rotating 1.2 degrees per floor. There are strengthened bracing floors every 5 floors providing rigidity to the structure as a whole.
The facade design was developed hand-in-glove with Arup facades using parametric modelling tools in Grasshopper, amongst other tools, to ensure minimum glass wastage. The facades were analysed for reflectivity and identified the potential problem with the London ‘walkie-talkie’ syndrome. This informed the glass and spandrel choice.
