The City of Durban sought to build a convention centre that would project Durban into the international convention arena, stimulating business tourism with all the attendant multiplier effects in the form of job creation, hotel development and international marketing of the City of Durban.

The brief, formulated in response to international research, required a multi-purpose, flexible venue capable of accommodating concurrent events and meetings of sizes that varied from small “breakout” sessions to large plenary meetings of up to 3 500 delegates.

This building has achieved all that was required of it, and more. Although the programmatic requirements essentially require flexible, enclosable boxes, the architects have, by an innovative manipulation of space, produced a building whose public walkways are anything but box-like. The undulating roof with its variable ceiling heights and the curved walkways relieve the rigidity of the programmatic requirements and simultaneously, creating a sense of occasion and place within the Durban CBD. So successful is this building that it has become an icon for Durban within just a few years of its completion.

The thorough planning and co-ordination of services; the meticulous detail design manifest in elements like the Brail-trail; and the incorporation of artworks as an integral part of the whole design, have produced a building of the highest order that justifies its receipt of the Award for Excellence.