The new Oliver Tambo Building on the corner of Tom Jenkins and Soutpansberg Road, Pretoria, is the recently constructed headquarters for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO).

 

The building complex consists of an internal street that links 5 office buildings and an international conference facility as well as a gym and crèche with a total of 140 000m² of office and utility space.  Two ancillary guesthouse facilities form part of the development.  The total development cost of this PPP facility including the complete fit out and a 25 year facility management amounts to R1.4 billion

 

The Oliver Tambo Building was the overall winner in the 2010 SAPOA Awards for Innovative Excellence competition and joint winner in the office category.

 

The landscape design has achieved the following goals:

 

• Develop a sensitive and indigenous landscape, appropriate for the building and its associated external uses, with provision for outdoor gathering and events for 2000 employees.

• Rehabilitate the disturbed landscape to blend in with the natural state of the environment and appropriately interact with the Ridge zone. 

• To develop a ‘brown way’ along Soutpansberg Road, a ‘red way’ along Tom Jenkins Drive and a ‘green way’ along the Ridge in accordance to the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) Open Space Framework.

• Protect the Parinari capensis habitat, the host plant of the ‘Dolomite Hopper’ (a red data species) in the north-eastern area of the site.

• Provide a sustainable and water efficient landscape and use local and natural materials as far as possible