Residential Development – 69 on Main, Greenpoint

Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a leading residential development company, enjoys keeping track for new developments around the country. Such developments provide an insight to Laurence Grigorov on forthcoming trends and market changes which better allow the company to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs and requirements.

A new residential project that Laurence Grigorov has recently seen, showcases modern design and a well thought out adaptation to the natural street environment is 69 on Main in Greenpoint, Cape Town. Developed by Abacus Development Company and designed by Bam Architects, the architecture of 69 on Main in Greenpoint is the result of a thorough assessment and analyses of its context. The contextual understanding of the site provided arguments for different positive interface proposals to respond to the differing conditions of the development site.

The site has a very important place along the Main Road Greenpoint streetscape and it was therefore important to ensure continuity with the existing fabric at street level in both scale and interface layering at pedestrian level. The building establishes an active wall edge facing the urban park across the road at the scale of the park. The circulation of people on foot was considered a priority over vehicular movement so that continuity of surfaces and materiality supports the pedestrian first.

69 on Main

The building reflects the transition in grain across the site from the finer grained southern edge towards a more course grain on the northern edge and as such the development had a responsibility to be the mediation between the fine grained residential neighbourhood of Green Point running along the slope of Signal Hill, as well as ensuring continuity with the Urban Wall consisting of higher intensity development along Main Road defining the edge of the urban park of the Green Point Common.

In its response the building therefore rises from a height of three storeys on the southern side, to eleven storeys on the northern boundary. The south side of the building responds to the finer grain of single residential houses whilst the north elevation responds to a carefully established height datum along Main Road with a clearly defined base, shaft and crown. The crown acts as a pulvinar or urban balcony overlooking the Green Point common. Buildings further up Signal Hill look down on the development and the design responded by treating the roofscape as a fifth elevation. Roofs are therefore occupied, textured and landscaped as far as possible.

The design utilises a rich pallet of modern materials and textures doing justice to its up-market location. The interior design concept was developed by BONE Design Studio and is based around creating a bespoke ’luxury living’ experience. Through the use of honest materials such as natural timbers, honed composite stones and a neutral palette of large format Italian tiles, every apartment exudes its own timeless sophistication.

Words and image courtesy of Architect & Builder magazine