The 'giant hat' on 24 Alfred Street | Noero Architects
In 2001, Noero Architects designed the alteration to a warehouse on 24 Alfred Street, originally designed by Ernest Seeliger in 1901 and now home to De Villiers & Hulme 's offices in Cape Town. The original structure consisted of an exterior, load-bearing brick façade, an internal brick firewall and a five-storey and load-bearing timber structure, which didn't comply with more recent fire regulations.
Image by David Southwood/Noero Architects
“A new concrete framed service core was introduced, containing the new elevator, fire escapes, ablutions and vertical ducting. The steel frame was supported on the perimeter walls and on the timber structure below.”
Cobute is proud to have supplied part of the new interior structure with its R.C. slab system, which remained exposed. The architects' design drew a beautiful and harmonious balance between the old brick structure and the new addition "being treated as aa giant hat onto the old brick structure", Joe Noero writes on his studios' website.
The new building acquired so much character to become the Engineer Studio's logo.
Image by Noero Architects
