Burmeister & Partners Windhoek
WINDHOEK
Location: Windhoek, Namibia
Status: Completed
Extent:
Client: Burmeister & Partners
Main Contractor: New Era Investments
Completion: 2018
Burmeister and Partners is a well-known large multi-disciplinary engineering company with a staff complement of around 60. Having outgrown the converted heritage building with its warren-like plan layout from which they had been operating for many years, they desired a spacious open-plan office more appropriate to the workings of an engineering company.
They also wanted to utilise the city’s free residential bulk incentive, hence the added residential component.
The challenge was to design a large production shed that would have a pronounced presence and visual impact on the busy Toivo Ya Toivo Street to the north-west yet respect the residential scale of buildings in the side street. The shed is floated on columns to accommodate staff parking underneath, with a double-storey panoramic bay-window making most of the commanding panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains to the north west.
Located on the side street, the main entrance to the office complex is along a raised walkway which takes the visitor to the reception, waiting area and main boardroom on the mezzanine level. Directors’ offices are located on the same level and overlook the double-volume production space. An extended ramp connects the entrance level down to the work floor, with 3 meeting pods located along the way. Five residential units edge the eastern boundary of the site along the side street, ensuring a more fragmented domestic scale and offering the approaching visitor punctuated glimpses of the office building beyond.
Concrete – off-shutter, scabbled and polished – and rusted steel serve as visual engineering references, whilst offering a robust pallet of materials and finishes alongside seamed Aluzink cladding and red face brick.
The Burmeister & Partners complex was constructed in two phases and completed in 2018.
