New building for historic port precinct

ONE of Durban’s first settled areas, the historic Point Precinct, is now home to a contemporary new building, the iconic headquarters of The Lion Match Company.

The first new building in Mahatma Gandhi Road (Point Road) in decades, this R80 million new Lion Match Company head office includes a five storey, 5 000m² mixed use development made up of a 2000m² distribution warehouse, corporate offices, retail space and covered parking.

Originally located in landmark premises in Umgeni Road, when its proximity to residential areas was no longer appropriate for health and safety reasons, The Fasic Investment Company who bought The Lion Match Company from South African Breweries in 2001, relocated the match manufacturing plant to Rosslyn, Pretoria.

However, there was still a need for state-of-the-art offices in Durban and The Lion Match Company became the first blue chip company to put down roots in the Point Waterfront.

Chairman, Mr Gora Abdoola had a strong idea of what he wanted and design of the new premises was awarded to Durban-based architectural firm, Emmett: Emmett Architects cc who were charged with creating a new iconic home for The Lion Match Company. The practice, which is renowned for providing sustainable architectural solutions, has worked on a number of restoration projects in the area as well as contemporary designs and was the ideal partner on this project.

“Working on a conservation project is always interesting as most buildings have small elements of infill. Our challenge on this project was different though as the entire Point area is a historic precinct and the new building was positioned opposite the old Station Masters Offices. We responded by setting the entrance courtyard back so that the view of the listed building was not impaired,” said Trish Emmett.

Design of this multifunctional building started in 2013 and took nine months to complete with traffic studies determining the early planning decisions. “The distribution centre is serviced by extremely large vehicles which need a wide turning circle. The largest of these are 22m long interlink double trailers with a height of 4,3m and a turning radius of 12m. This had an impact on the massing of the building.” The entrance to the distribution centre is 13 metres wide with an eight metre interior height for racking. Although the building is essentially a distribution centre, it was important that it didn’t look like one. The offices were designed to wrap around it the centre creating an elegant facade,” Emmett said.

Fronted by the company’s iconic golden lion, the building was designed to blend with its portside location with decks and sails and floor to ceiling glass that provides magnificent views over South Africa’s largest and busiest harbour. “The simplicity of the façade is a foil for the richness of the surrounding heritage buildings. If you pare down the plan and extract the main elements, it is simplified to a profile of a lion (with the sun screens making up the mane),” said Emmett.

Emmett said the plan was to create another significant building and to this end the company have included in the design three golden lions which are a critical part of The Lion Match Company’s identity: the lion on the ground floor in the forecourt roars on the hour and the other two are at the entrance to the offices on the second floor and on the roof.

Other elements from the original building in Umgeni Road were also incorporated into the new design. The main staircase linking the ground floor to the offices is semi-circular as a memory of the original staircase, however, in a nod to the new modern design a 12-metre water walls runs down the centre of the stairs.

It has a number of noteworthy green elements which were incorporated into the design.