One Rosebank

Most urban centres in South Africa are designed to accommodate a car-centric culture, rather than one that prioritises the pedestrian. But Rosebank, located north of the Johannesburg CBD, South Africa, is a vibrant mixed-use centre that bucks this trend. It is a walkable precinct, featuring mixed-use retail and commercial buildings with active ground-floor frontages and buildings designed to connect with pedestrian activity at street level.

Located less than two kilometres from the Rosebank CBD, One Rosebank has been designed to extend this approach, providing a high-quality development within walkable reach of the commercial centre and to public transport links.

One Rosebank is a mixed-use development, comprising co-working spaces, coffee shop with meeting rooms, a spectacular rooftop restaurant and a bar. It comprises around 600 units in studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom configurations. The development contributes to the urban design language of the adjacent Oxford Parks precinct, where dhk designed the masterplan and a number of award-winning buildings.

The 1.2 hectare site is bordered by large commercial office buildings to the south and single residential homes on large, tree-lined plots to the north. The design responds to the site’s sloping topography, resulting in a seven-storey block to one side of the site and a lower, four-storey construction opposite, respecting the zoning requirements and acknowledging the scale of the surrounding urban fabric. The buildings are designed around a large landscaped courtyard that creates an active social environment containing a gym, swimming pool and ball court.

The architecture is simple and fresh, comprising a strong, two-storey lower, tiled and colonnaded base, with upper levels of white-painted raked jointed brickwork. An alternating rhythm of inset balconies and windows are offset with projecting concrete framed bays. This forms a carefully modulated and taut composition, creating varying depths of light and shadow. Simple vertical steel balustrades further animate and enliven the façades. Walkway bridges and strong vertical breaks between blocks define entrances, the position of lobbies, and vertical circulation. The retail components, gym and clubhouse are expressed as lightweight flat-roofed, steel and glass pavilions, with a publicly accessible terrace stitching the buildings at the corner. The rooftop restaurant follows the same transparent architectural formula, with its angled shopfronts and corner tilted roof capturing the panoramic views above the dense tree canopy of the urban forest below.

The development supports an e-bike rental service and charging stations for electric vehicles, which reduces emissions and dependency on private cars. Sustainability measures include photovoltaic solar panels that generate electricity, particularly useful during South Africa’s bouts of loadshedding, or planned power outages. A water backup system is also in place in case of breaks in the usual municipal water supply.

• Client Tricolt
• Location Johannesburg, South Africa
• Year 2024
• Area 1.2 hectare site
• Status On site
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