unity

Unity is the first phase of The Precinct which is the corporate headquarters of GRIT Real Estate Income Group, an award-winning, women-lead pan-African real estate company listed in Mauritius and London. GRIT delivers impact driven real estate developments across the African continent and its philosophy goes beyond buildings and the built environment, to initiate collective social investment programmes. These leverage the efforts of the family of partnerships surrounding GRIT to both empower and celebrate the people of Africa

The primary client’s directive and brief was very clear at inception – a multi tenanted office building with a design that had to anticipate a flexible planning solution which could handle variant space requirements from future tenants. The commercial nature of this aspect, combined with these variables, was thus a key driver in setting up floor plates of various sizes either side of the atrium space.

The brief for Unity / GRIT Head Office (GHO) was to create a home for the company to overtly reflect its roots in the African Continent and the African experience. The story of the experiences gained nearly a decade ago, had to be translated into core design descriptives – resilient, tough, agile and robust.

At the core of the concept was the desire to capture a special African spirit, a quality which delivered an immediacy reflecting the company’s special quality and one which was inviting, provocative and memorable.

Conceptually, three notions physically seeded the key parts of the design solution:

Heart: this is a space – the seat of energy – the atrium

Hive: this is a place and an object – the embedded piece of grit

Skin: this is the visible fabric of the building – the materials, surfaces, textures and colour

heart

• The atrium is the heart, the nexus, the connecting space that everyone enjoys
• It is the space offering the journey through, up and down and across , for all occupants
• It is the entrance and the exit, the breathing space which delights
• It is the African beat of the office, the energy and the focus of the building
• It offers experiential variety in a light filled volume
• It is the gallery displaying art and colour

hive

• This is literal grit – the true grit – the symbol of the spirit
• It is purposely placed in an unexpected place – hovering on approach
• It represents a grain of sand rendered in a natural hardwood
• It is part of an envelope which is a filter for the island sun and rain
• It will weather like a grain of sand, while the metal and glass around it, will remain constant
• Ultimately the hive is the differentiator, the signal on first approach that something is different and that something special is happening inside!

skin

• The exterior envelope is driven by the island’s specific climatic conditions and orientation to engage people, passing cars and the sun
• The materiality of the internal spaces is the ‘ubuntu’ of interiors
• The warm, earthy and often raw palette of materials deployed, exudes the African experience
• Two tall living green walls, another skin, animate the atrium space inviting in the tranquility of the exterior
• The mix and juxtaposition of various textures, the colours, the materials that animate the interior surfaces exude and speak of the continent that GRIT works and plays in

The planning of The Precinct site derives from a simple principle that three individual buildings are arranged to create a central landscaped courtyard. This assembly allows development phasing and incorporates two office buildings, Unity being the first and a mixed use element between, a business hotel with retail as the portal to the courtyard

The Unity design solution is generated around stacked office floors, five levels in the west block and four in an eastern block, these being intercepted and connected by a proportionally tall atrium. The office floors are simple in plan form, raw in nature and naturally lit with extensive filtered glazing the north and south and limited glazing on the east and west. The atrium, serving as the dramatic, warm and voluminous heart of the construct, displays a sculptural stair linking all levels via bridges and is animated by meeting pods protruding and engaging with this dynamic space. This atrium is at once the spatial signature, entrance and effortless connector between levels vertically and the future courtyard and buildings forming The Precinct. The fifth level of the building exhibits a large cantilevered roof and verandas to promote panoramic distant views to the ocean and interceding verdant landscape. Located here and capitalising on the prospect are the entertainment spaces, cigar lounge, bar and large gathering spaces. Spatially, Unity is simple and directly legible for all who work and visit

Unity is the first Greenstar rated office building in the Indian Ocean Islands and achieved both a design and build rating of 5 stars. An intensive engagement deriving a meaningful strategy to integrate practical and locally achievable sustainability measures, was facilitated from inception. These strategies included the following aspects:

FACADES AND LIGHT

• Enhanced natural daylight ingress through expansive glazed facades
• Harsh solar ingress mitigation through the implementation of filtered facades deploying both solar shading fins and perforated screens
• Thermal modulation through the implementation performance glazing to all elevations
• Daylight and glare control through the implementation of performance glass and internal blinds
• Façade fenestration design model to enable future disassembly for recycling
• Light pollution mitigation by using downlight fittings externally
• Accessibility to natural light and views from most positions on typical floorplates

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

• Fuel efficient transport bays with EV chargers
• Promotion of bicycle transportation with the inclusion of bicycle storage and changerooms
• Low VOC paints used throughout the interior of the building
• Recycling waste storage implemented