Protea Court, on the corner of Sandton Drive and Rivonia Road, Sandton, Johannesburg, was designed to become the new state of the art entrance to Sandton City Shopping Centre.

The intricate design required the circular shape of the external ring beam to be set at an angle of 11 degrees, thus creating an ellipse.

 State of the art design

The steel structure, formed from I beams, created the basic shape of the roof over the court.  Each I beam, supported form the lift shaft bent over rand out to meet up with the external ring beam. The challenge was to clad the ring beams in such a way as to create solid forms increasing in size while extending over the space. The material of choice was Decolite. Decolite allows for complete freedom of design, as each profile is different in size and shape to the next element.

Engineered Fixing Details

Several design considerations were suggested for the fixing of the Decolite profiles to the I beams. In order to ensure the correct fitted element, several mock-ups were manufactured to ensure the correct engineering.

Cladding of I beams

The entire structure was formed from the steel I beams and then each clad with a Decolite profile. This included the radial beams, the bifurcating arms, the vertical columns and the internal and external ring beams.