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Commercial Property of the Month

Green Works: Sisonke District

When the KZN Department of Public Works (DoPW) in Pietermaritzburg (the Southern Region) briefed Umzumbe-based architect Steve Kinsler on their new Sisonke District Office, green as a colour or concept didn’t form part of the discussion. But for Steve and his team, it’s the only premise on which they operate.

When they presented their sketches, the DoPW was not only very receptive to the idea of a green building, but the project coincided with a policy decision to introduce green building practice.

The DoPW knew that, as a public office providing infrastructural service delivery, they had to lead by example, and that’s what they intend to do.
East Coast Architects has long built a reputation on sustainable design elements. Steve has very strong views. ‘We believe sustainable building design in this country needs to shift from the fringes, where they tend, at the one end, to be experimental building projects for the poor or, at the other, exclusive, gadget-filled developments for the wealthy,’ he says.

He’s unequivocal in his view that green architecture should be synonymous with good architecture, not the ‘specialised’ service it’s currently thought to be. He sees buildings as providing substantial opportunities for environmental, health and economic benefits at multiple levels. ‘Something as simple as the considered specification of a particular, locally manufactured green material or product can simultaneously reduce the negative global environmental impact and at the same time invest in the local economy. Local is lekker!

‘Most green options have this dual benefit scenario, often with multiple other positive spinoffs. An example in the new building involves the design for natural day-lighting, which provides both a healthy work environment and simultaneously reduces energy consumption.’

Steve enjoys smashing popular misconceptions, particularly the cost factor. ‘Most interventions can happen at the design stage and many need not have any capital cost implication.’

The DoPW design incorporates many green elements. There are five key ones: excellent solar orientation (in this case the building’s long, narrow shape will maximise opportunities for natural light and ventilation); a green roof that will provide good insulation and adds ecological value; a solar under-floor heating system and passive solar design to heat the building in winter; harvested and recycled rainwater, to be used for flushing toilets; and careful selection of materials, to ensure that building components are locally sourced and that harmful emissions are reduced.

Steve believes that both architects and clients should be designing ‘interactive’ buildings that respond to seasonal change. ‘Buildings must have high degrees of self-sufficiency and independence from the increasingly expensive and unreliable municipal utilities. It’s important to decentralise from the inefficient, rigid systems used to generate and distribute essential services, such as power and water. We must work towards self-sufficient buildings, and wake up to the fact that a building’s operating costs can be as much as triple the original capital outlay of constructing the building.’

Steve is immensely satisfied to be working on a showcase structure that he considers as having the potential to inspire others in the direction of sustainability. In accordance with the DoPW’s intention, to lead by example, he says, ‘A green building for the DoPW presents a great opportunity to create a very public, mainstream model for some of the design and construction techniques that we as architects need to start should be using in all of our projects as standard practice’

Steve Kinsler Architect, +27 (0)39 684 6245