GBCSA 4 Star Design Rating for South Ottery Education District Office

Lukhozi worked hand in hand with the professional team led by the Architect, NM & Associates Planners and Designers.  The Green Star Certification process was led by Ecolution Consulting, who guided the team with a deep understanding of the certification process.  The balance of the professional team consisted of Rubiquant, as the Quantity Surveyor, and GIBB, as the Mechanical and Electrical Engineers.

Lukhozi’s Civil and Structural Engineers faced many challenges with the prevailing site conditions.  The site is located in a severely degraded wetland, near a watercourse, with a high groundwater level in the wet season and very poor ground bearing capacity.

The Civil Engineers implemented a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) in line with the City of Cape Town’s SUDS objectives.  Stormwater is attenuated on the site in a series of swales and allowed to infiltrate into the sandy soils beneath the site.  The system was designed in conjunction with the Landscape Architect OVP Associates to mimic and blend with the native wetlands of the region. 

Our Civil Engineers further developed a subsoil drainage system that may be used by the contractor during construction to dewater the site.  The subsoil drainage will also form part of the permanent works by harvesting infiltrated seepage water for non-potable water consumption thus reducing the developments potable water consumption.

To cater for the extremely poor ground conditions and a rapid construction period the Structural Engineers designed a concrete framed structure with post tensioned slabs on concrete piles.

The designs are complete and the construction phase is scheduled to start early in 2021.

Media:nm & associates planners and designers