Interview: GASS Architects / Johannesburg
Georg van Gass / architect pr.arch (UP BArch) MIArch
Gass is one of our awesome clients. Having met Georg many years back, the respect for their approach to architecture and urban design runs deep. Plus they have good taste and always have champagne on the ready.
Your favourite hotel/home space:
Your top restaurant:
Your latest read:
Had dinner at Eatery JHB last night and I think I found my new favourite
Something non design related, I read Rouge: The Inside Story of SARS’s – Elite Crime-busting Unit by Johan van Loggerenberg
One on Mutual - Gass Architects
Corner of Madiba and Mutual Street, Pretoria CBD
This is a new mixed use development in the CBD of Pretoria with ground floor retail 4 levels of Parking [of which one level is a basement level] and 142 residential units of 8 levels. It also includes a refurb of a heritage building on the site called “Ons Eerste Volksbank”.
The development is an exciting step for GASS in which we can further showcase or thoughts and believes in urban architecture. We believe that this project enhances the users and accidental users experience of the building and the urban environment that the building sits in. With the addition of the new arcade between the Heritage building and the newly build and the subsequent new link to the Capital Towers North; the project creates a new urban space for the people of the city. This space is complimented by a new public art installation by Angus Taylor entitled “Homage to the foundation on which everything is built”
We believe the new building reflects our design ethos in not creating Icon Buildings, but rather creating “background buildings” that creates good architecture rather than creating buildings that scream for attention. This by no means are buildings that are “ugly”, but rather buildings that reflect time and timelessness rather than trend.
