GREEN BY
DESIGN
11
Official publication of the Green
Building Council of South Africa
IMPACT
Rising to the challenge
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
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Editor
Mary Anne Constable
maryanne@positive-impact.africa
Director
Danielle Solomons
danielle@greeneconomy.media
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Nicole Cameron
Gillian Gertnetzky
Melinda Hardisty
Henk Rotman
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Jo Anderson
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Cover image:
Sandton City Shopping
Centre, Gauteng.
Credit: Sandton City
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
CONTENTS
05
INSIGHT
A note from the editor, Mary Anne
Constable
06
PROFILE
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo
08
PROJECT
d-SCHOOL: THE EMBODIMENT OF
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN REALISED
The Hasso Plattner School of Design
Thinking (d-school) at UCT exemplifies
the use of collaborative design and
future-proof thinking
16
SPECIAL FEATURE
TWO DEGREES AHEAD OF THE REST
Liberty Two Degrees recently announced
that their entire property retail portfolio
has received Green Star ratings
28
PROJECT
GREEN AT HEART
All targeting 6-Star Green Star Design
and Net Zero Carbon ratings, ‘green barn’
lifestyle centres are currently being rolled
out across Balwin’s Green Collection
Developments
38
POLICY
RAISING THE ENERGY BAR
South Africa’s newly implemented
Energy Performance Certificate
regulations will encourage buildings to
become more energy efÏcient
46
TECHNOLOGY
THE EVOLVING ROLE OF LIGHTING
IN GREEN BUILDINGS
Henk Rotman explores the touch points
between green buildings and lighting
54
CASE STUDIES
GREEN BUILDING SERVICES, MATERIALS
AND TECHNOLOGIES
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POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
Gr�n By Design
Editor
Mary Anne Constable
Mary Anne Constable
utside of my ofÏce today, a weed-eater is humming a doleful
tune in the driveway, as if to create the soundtrack for what has
turned out to be a grey-clouded afternoon. Nevertheless, I’m
sitting inside at my desk writing this note to you, while eating
a chocolate marshmallow easter egg (it’s actually my first one of the season
but, let’s be honest, it won’t be my last).
I’m pondering over new life, beginnings, seasons, change; and all the things
that easter eggs are supposed to represent. This time in 2020, South Africa was
in the middle of a hard lockdown due to the world having just plunged into
a devastating pandemic. It has been a challenging year in so many ways, but
also a year of unusual innovation. Many businesses were forced to reinvent
themselves, to pivot, to adjust. It has been a year in which the necessity to be
more sustainable and resilient has laid itself out starkly, and many have risen
to the challenge. Many have decided to build back better.
In this issue of +Impact Magazine, we explore what it means to be ‘green
by design’.
INSIGHT
It has been a year in which the necessity to be
more sustainable and resilient has laid itself out
starkly, and many have risen to the challenge.
Many have decided to build back better.
The new home of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school)
at UCT demonstrates a meeting of conceptual collaborative thinking and
structural form. Collaborative workshops were held with various stakeholders,
in order to make sure the building design really served all of its required
functionality. These ideas have come to life in a dynamic steel and glass
structure which curls itself over the inside spaces like a cloud. Furthermore,
the building is targeting a 6-Star Green Star PEB Design rating, showing that
‘green’ can be highly innovative too.
Being green doesn’t always mean starting right from the beginning of a
building’s design. Liberty Two Degrees recently Green Star certified their
entire portfolio of retail centres showing that it is possible for existing buildings
to be retrofitted and reinvented into greener ones. With a prestigious retail
centre such as Sandton City achieving a 6-Star EBP rating, others are sure to
follow suit (holding thumbs).
Balwin & Boogertman+Partners ‘green barn’ lifestyle centres are a striking
design addition Balwin’s Green Collection residential developments. With
plans to target 6-Star Green Star ratings for all these developments, I wonder
how this will influence the residential development space, and whether it will
encourage other developers to pursue ambitious green goals too.
We also feature a discussion of the role of lighting in green buildings
which expands on the influence of technology on design, and a review of the
Energy Performance Certificate regulations – an important development for
all property owners.
Last, but certainly not least, I wish to you a happy easter holiday period
(whatever the significance of the holiday is for you). May the change come
easy as you glide into the second quarter of 2021 (and a new season).
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
PROFILE
End Street North Park’s
lessons for Africa
ith 3 000 land parcels stretching from
cemeteries to large road islands on its
books, how does Johannesburg City
Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) ensure the safety
and upkeep of these parks and public open spaces with
limited resources, budget and capacity to deal with the
many challenges they face?
While focusing on limited resources to developing
and managing accessible, inclusive and sustainable
public open spaces. JCPZ found that lack of security
and other concerns kept people away from local parks.
End Street North Park in Doornfontein was selected
as the most challenged site of a 2019 pilot project to
make parks safe and attractive by testing alternative
development and management concepts. The approach
aimed to be holistic and collaborative, involving not
only the local users and stakeholders, but also City
departments. The overall ambitious aim was to develop
a practical and integrated model to design and manage
public open spaces that could be mimicked elsewhere
in Joburg, and throughout cities in Africa.
Taken from the report Transforming Public Parks
into Safe and Inclusive Community Spaces: Lessons
on collaboration and participation from the City of
Johannesburg, here are seven lessons learnt for park
users and administrators throughout Africa.
1. More than just green spaces, parks knit
neighbourhoods’ social fabric
Parks are more than simply physical spaces for relaxing
and playing and require more input than the simple
municipal services of picking up litter and cutting
grass. A holistic understanding of managing public
open spaces and parks is required for them to fulfil
functions that best benefit the communities that use
them, especially in dense and diverse neighbourhoods.
2. Partnerships and collective action are key to any
park’s success
The ongoing process of activating and managing parks
needs partnerships, networks and forums to germinate
and take root. Adding capacity and knowledge-sharing
to the park through the commitment of invested
individuals with a common purpose make the adage
‘many hands make light work’ a reality.
The End Street North Park project was made possible
through a joint partnership between Johannesburg
City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ), as project leader, the
Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the
Department of Public Safety, Sticky Situations, Wits
University and the Inclusive Violence and Crime
Prevention Programme (VCP), a joint development
cooperation programme between South Africa and
Germany implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and UN-
Habitat Global Public Space Programme . The process
created the space for new collaborations to emerge,
not only across City departments but with the South
African Cities Network and the South African Local
Government Association.
3. Park users are not all the same
Park users reflect the demographics of the
neighbourhood plus school children and visitors.
Therefore, a requirement to develop inclusive, safe
and accessible parks is an understanding of the needs,
desires and challenges of all different park users.
Importantly, the roles of vulnerable groups such as
people experiencing homelessness, waste collectors,
informal traders provide by being the eyes and ears of
the park, and as such contribute to safety and security.
The needs of most park users can be accommodated
through communication, education and negotiation
about the role and contribution of the shared space
to the general community, including how and when
it is used.
City officials globally are learning that residents’ quality of life is significantly
affected by the quality of public open spaces available. A sociable, cohesive and
healthy society requires well-managed and maintained public open spaces.
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
user groups, such as local users from different areas or
with different political allegiances. These tensions are
typically expressed in distrust, anger, alienation, and
division which slows the project progress. Introducing
all stakeholders upfront, including residents, local
councillors and ofÏcials starts a transparent and
communication-orientated process.
6. Leadership with a win-win approach
Committed leadership from the City is needed to
coordinate regular engagement and build a dedicated
park committee prepared to make the case for and
to work across internal City departments, despite
systems which discourage integrated approaches to
annual activities, tasks or budgets. A project like the
End Street North Park is a multi-year project involving
local level politicians at a small scale.
What helps is to encourage a cross-sector response
by presenting a win-win situation – the various ofÏcials
must see that actively participating will contribute to
achieving their own departmental targets.
7. Community buy-in and support makes the work
easier and sustainable
Communities that have a sense of ownership, take care
of the public open spaces they use. This care is often
implemented after users with sometimes divergent
interests agree to work together, and this cooperation
is accelerated when ofÏcials effectively manage
community expectations by sharing information on how
the City works, helping them to shift from complaining
to joint problem-solving.
Park users and local residents are key resources to
any park development and when empowered to take
responsibility of their own parks and public open
spaces, they become more likely to contribute to
ensuring that their spaces remain safe, secure, clean and
functional. This ultimately makes the City’s work easier,
especially in a resource-constrained environment.
Starting small, a shared commitment mobilises greater
levels of collaboration, which encourages resource
mobilisation and promotes working together across
City departments and with local ward councillors, as
a virtuous cycle is catalysed.
WHAT IS PLACEMAKING?
Placemaking is an approach to designing, developing, activating and maintaining public open spaces that
is based on community-driven and research-based processes. Collaborative community participation is
at the forefront of creating public open spaces, inviting local users to collectively reimagine and reinvent
public open spaces in which they are active. Collaborative engagement is used to shape the public realm,
strengthen connection between local users and public open spaces that they share.
With community-based participation at the centre, effective placemaking processes recognise communities
as resources and capitalise on local assets and potential. It is an immensely powerful way of approaching
public open spaces. Genuine placemaking is when people of all ages, abilities and socio-economic
backgrounds can, not only access and enjoy a place, but also play a key role in identifying, creating and
maintaining it. Placemaking is a catalyst for pulling in investment for the economic growth of an area
and for bringing communities together to improve their neighbourhood spaces. This results in more ‘eyes
on the street’, which contributes to making places safer.
4. Park safety is multi-dimensional and more than
policing
A safety audit needs to be done. This will identify
issues in the park and the surrounding precinct by
mapping crime and give insight into how the space
functions. Just as safety permeates every aspect of
social life, public open spaces or parks cannot be
isolated from surroundings, broader communities and
managed effectively if the broader neighbourhood
is unsafe. More than fences, security guards, and
CCTV, safety also includes promoting social
control by activating spaces through community
engagement and supporting the implementation of
rules and regulations and better communication and
coordination among institutions.
In the case of End Street North Park, the audit
highlighted external safety issues, such as the lack
of a safe pedestrian crossing across a busy adjacent
street, despite the presence of a nearby primary school.
Another was the lack of toilets in the park, which
contributed to people urinating in public. These
reinforced perceptions that the park was dirty and
dangerous, and a place in which, especially women
and children, did not feel comfortable or safe.
5. Meaningful stakeholder engagement takes time
and skill
Public participation is not simply a few casual
consultations – it requires continuity and building
trust between park users and government through
a sustained process of communication, negotiation,
respect and honesty. It also requires being vulnerable
to making mistakes. Meaningful engagement does
not happen through ofÏcials attending community
meetings to disseminate information, rather it happens
when active participants develop relationships.
The case study illustrated that for suitably effective
levels of engagement, ofÏcials were required to work
flexible hours and be given the opportunity to develop
the ‘soft’ skills of listening and facilitation to properly
understand people’s needs, desires and challenges.
It also became clear that neighbourhood politics is
integral to all participatory processes and cannot be
ignored as this would lead to tension between different
PROFILE
PROJECT
The embodiment
of collaborative
design realised
d-school:
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
The Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school)
teaches design thinking to students and individuals across
all industries and from diverse backgrounds. Naturally, one
would expect the school’s new home at UCT to exemplify
the use of collaborative design and future-proof thinking
in its building. This vision will soon be a reality.
WORDS Melinda Hardisty
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
Project nutshell
Location:
UCT’s Middle Campus,
Cape Town
Type of Building: Design school within an
academic institution
Project Dates:
Expected completion
in March 2022
Project Size:
5500m²
Green Star Rating: Targeting a 6-Star rating
(Public & Education Building
Design v1 & As-Built)
10
POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 11
PROJECT
he concept of ‘design’ has historically been
quite limited to specific areas of the arts. In
the past, being a ‘designer’ was reserved for
quite specific professions and creative fields,
while people working in more corporate or technical
settings might describe themselves as ‘not creative’.
The inherent creativity we see in children is often
either stamped out or is channelled into very specific
forms before adulthood. This thinking has changed
over the last few decades.
‘DESIGN THINKING’ EMERGES
When Hasso Plattner, German businessman and
philanthropist, donated funds in 2005 to start the first
international d.school at Stanford University, a new
vision for teaching design was realised. It extended the
reach of the D-School at the Hasso Plattner Institute
in Potsdam, Germany, which had focussed on design
in Information Technology Systems since 1998. The
schools teach collaborative design processes that can be
applied in myriad contexts. Students learn about ‘design
thinking’, a globally recognised approach and mindset
to solving complex problems from a human-centred
perspective. The approach harnesses the power of
diversity and group thinking to solve complex problems
with nuanced solutions.
Africa’s first d-school was founded in Cape Town in
2015 with seed funding and IP support from the Hasso
Plattner Foundation and has been temporarily housed
at the UCT Graduate School of Business campus. It
primarily offers design thinking education and courses
to students at the university, and in addition helps large
corporations, NGOs, and government organisations use
design thinking to drive innovation and new outcomes.
Richard Perez, founding director of Cape Town’s
d-school, explains that the school’s work reaches across
all the faculties of the university and has reached many
African countries through its courses and workshops.
He says that “the d-school intends to expand its reach
further into Africa and ensure that design thinking is
a catalyst for enhanced problem solving by Africans,
for Africans”.
D-SCHOOL’S NEW HOME
By 2017 the potential of the d-school had become
apparent and the Hasso Plattner Foundation agreed
to fund the construction of a dedicated state-of-the-
art facility on UCT’s Middle Campus. Once the site
had been identified the design for a new building
was commissioned through an invited competition.
KMH Architects in Cape Town ultimately won. The
sustainability requirements were clear from the
beginning and formed part of the competition brief,
including the aspiration to target a 6-Star Green Star.
Part of UCT’s ‘Vision 2030’ includes meeting certain
sustainability goals across its campuses. These goals
include a minimum requirement of a 4-Star Green Star
certification for all new buildings. Manfred Braune,
UCT’s Director for Environmental Sustainability,
explains: “Targeting a 6-Star rating allows UCT to get
first-hand experience as an academic institution of
pushing the green building boundaries even further,
with no other African academic institution yet having
An artist’s impression of the
school in its context on the
UCT campus.
The conceptual visualisation of
the project utilised the d-school’s
design thinking approach to solving
problems, incorporating five
stages; empathise, define, ideate,
prototype, and test.
d-school at UCT