October 2012 - Trademax Publications

green building“A 4 Green Star building breaks even on cost/investment, withsignificant long-term benefits,” says Hemraj. “We predict thatwe are saving an estimated R44 000-R48 000 per year inelectricity at the City of Cape Town Housing Contact Office.That means that at today’s electricity costs we will have apayback for the renewable energy component in just 4-5 years.Further to the solar power, a wind turbine supplementselectricity on cloudy or rainy days. The electricity is stored inbatteries and can run the building for an estimated three days.”Hemraj believes that it’s not just all about the constructionmaterials. “The social and economic elements are starting tobecome an important element of green buildings. We didn’t getany points for our primary objective to include unskilled locallabour. Although the training process did slow the project downslightly, we are very proud of this building,” he explains.Hemraj does, however, stress that using labour intensivemethods of construction should be implemented from as earlyas the conceptual design stage.The internal courtyard showing the mosaic work onconcrete and Corobrik’s De Hoop Satin Face brick.Due to security concerns the client had wanted the wholebuilding to be fenced off amid fears of damage and vandalism.“We demonstrated, however, that the social connection is animportant one and that one should open spaces up to the localcommunity.”“We want the community to be proud of where they live, so thatthey feel comfortable to reinvest within and remain committedin fighting for a better community environment. We wantedthis building to be an inspiration in Manenberg, something thatwe, the City and the community, can be proud of,” he concludes14OCTOBER 2012