Architecture at the turn of the millennium promises to be the embodiment of the emergent Social Contract that requires that, when we build, we consider every affected party. With the addition of the ABSA Towers North building to what was to become the ABSA Inner City Campus, these parties ranged from the flower vendor – who once plied trade on the corner of (now de-proclaimed) Fox Street – to the standards set by the international community for energy efficiency and sustainability.
Water in particular is treated as a precious resource: there are vast amounts stored on site in the basement. Rainwater, harvested from the roof, is used as boosters for the air conditioning plant. In turn water condensate is collected and returned to holding tanks for the same purpose.

Another noteworthy approach to resource efficiency is the creation of a Waste Recovery Centre for the sorting and recycling of waste. Refuse generated in the building is sorted into compostable and recyclable wastes. This is not only environmentally responsible management, but it is income generating as well; indeed, the waste-recycling centre generates more income than would letting the same area as retail space.

The office accommodation, forty-five-thousand square meters in total, is conceived as flexible open plan spaces with access flooring and plenum ceilings, allowing for the greatest degree of adaptability over time. Because of the internal atrium no office is deeper than sixteen meters and all have direct natural lighting, either at the perimeter or into the light well. The sizing of the spaces has been modular, based on multiples of three hundred millimetres, thereby allowing for the use of materials in standard dimensions, and so reducing wastage.

Here we have a building, not deriving from faddish stylistics, but with an aesthetic that derives from programmatic concerns and performance criteria. If the architecture of this millennium is to be grounded in the ethos of the emergent Social Contract, then the ABSA North Tower Building gives direction that should be followed.
Through the achievement in this project of an urban building which both contributes to a viable urban landscape and demonstrates commitment to sustainability at city scale this project is deemed worthy of an Award for Excellence.