Durham Square Residential Development

Orcinus Properties

Salt River, Cape Town

2008

The project consisted of 7 residential floors, 3 parking floors and a basement for commercial use. The soil conditions on site were unstable due to heaving and collapsible red clay, which meant that the foundations had to be piled. The building was designed to have flexible joints between columns and balustrade beams to allow for possible soil settling or heaving. The residential floors have 16m wide balconies cantilevering 3m. These large curved balconies largely contributed to the aesthetic appeal of the building and could therefore not be supported at the lower level. A unique tie system was introduced in the partition walls using a tension/compression system between the slabs all the way to the roof to support the cantilever balconies.