The 8-storey hotel building, developed by Intaprop and designed by DHK Architects*, is situated within a walkable pedestrian network with easy access to bus stops and various amenities, including the Rosebank Mall.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

“It’s impossible to put a value on a building that brings integrity to its urban landscape,” says Carollyn Mitchell, Director at Intaprop.

The City of Johannesburg has signed the C40 agreement, which is about doing the right thing for the city and its future generations. At Intaprop, we fully support this drive to make the right environmental choices. Oxford Parks is designed to take Green Star into the public realm, and we actively encourage our partners and tenants to lead the way in this respect.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

Martin Lardner Burke, Senior Associate at DHK, elaborates on the building’s architecture:

The design was a direct response to the clear definitive brand standards, site orientation and overall location within the precinct. These three components established the overall form, orientation, and look and feel of the building.

Double volume glazing was constrained to the long south façade and short east and west facades to limit heat loading on the glazing, and performance glass was specified as needed. We specified robust local materials where possible to reduce the overall carbon load of the building and minimise future maintenance requirements.

Annelide Sherratt, Head of Department: Green Building Certifications at Solid Green, adds, “Innovation was an important part of the process. The Innovation credit that the project targeted was based on the WELL Exterior Active Design credit. This required the project to leverage site design and amenities within the immediate vicinity to encourage the building users to engage in physical activity throughout the day.”

Photo Credit: Intaprop

The WELL credit promotes investment in urban infrastructure to support a vibrant community by stipulating walkable surrounds to the building, to prioritise pedestrian movement above motorised transport. The ground floor level is public and freely accessible, with walking paths throughout the site that are not impeded by fences or gates. The design also incorporates outdoor spaces that can be used year-round and that contain seating and biophilic elements. Various artistic installations have been placed strategically at the key access points to the site, at entrances to the building, and internally on public levels.

The hotel also supports occupant and visitor activity by facilitating the use of bicycles with 8 staff bike racks with lockers, 18 visitor bike racks and a staff shower.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A number of energy, water and environmental initiatives contributed to the certification. An energy model of the building was generated in the design stages of the project, which helped to inform decisions to achieve an energy consumption efficiency of over 60% improvement when compared to a SANS 10400 notional building. Further modelling enabled a high level of thermal comfort by ensuring that the internal operative temperatures are within the ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 Acceptability Limits for at least 98% of occupied hours.

Both the building’s chillers have a heat recovery function that allows the excess rejected heat that occurs during the cooling process to heat up water in a separate system. This pre-heated water is then fed into the hotel’s main domestic hot water system tank, helping to reduce the energy required by the main domestic hot water system. Further energy savings are enabled by occupancy sensors and individual light switches that are provided for all individual spaces or enclosed spaces.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A smart irrigation system uses soil moisture sensors that provide highly accurate readings of soil moisture under all conditions of temperature and soil chemistry. This, together with water efficient fittings that limit occupant water usage, allow water savings of approximately 43% against a notional building reference case.

To better understand and manage consumption and assess opportunities for energy savings, all major energy and water consuming systems are sub-metered.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A project-specific Environmental Management Plan established guidelines for the construction process to minimise the environmental impact associated with construction activities; and a project-specific Waste Management Plan helped to minimise the contribution of waste going to landfill. The project also aims to recycle or reuse 60% of the total waste from the hotel, and a waste recycling storage area with 30 bins has been provided to encourage building users to minimise waste going landfill sites.

In proactively engaging with the public realm and implementing forward-thinking sustainability initiatives, the Oxford Parks Red Radisson has made a significant contribution to the precinct’s overall vision of attaining a high quality, vibrant environment for its users.

*The Solid Green team is deeply saddened by the loss of project architect Thapelo Letsoalo from DHK Architects, during the process of completing the project. The building is testament to his great design talents and diligent work. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

Project Team

Developer: Intaprop
Accredited Professional: Solid Green Consulting
Architect: DHK Architects
Electrical Engineer: RWP Taemane Consulting
Fire Engineer: WSP
Lift Sub-contractor: Schindler
Mechanical Engineer: Adaptive Resource Engineers
Quantity Surveyors: Gro2 Consulting
Structural/ Civil Engineers: Pure Consulting
Sustainable Design Review: Solid Green Consulting
Sustainable Building Consultant: Solid Green Consulting
Wet Services: Izazi Consulting Engineers
Main Contractor: Concor
Project Manager: Morta Project Management
Landscape Consultant: Insite Group