GOLDEN ARROW BUS SERVICES

The 1800 square-metre centre is where prospective staff are recruited and trained and is an important space for the on-going learning and skills development of the bus company’s employees. The Centre accommodates the expanding Professional Driver Programme in a campus environment on Golden Arrow’s strategically located site on Imam Haroun Road, a major transport corridor in Cape Town.

Apart from offices and technical staff accommodation, variously sized flexible classrooms and workshops including one to fit a bus were required for up to 300 staff and students at any given time. The design solution is a double storey signature building conceived of as a campus, with spaces around two north facing courts – one external and the other internal. The first is an open north facing landscaped garden creating sheltered outdoor relaxation and breakaway spaces for the students and staff as a retreat from the harsh urban landscape. The other space is a grand, double-volume mechanical workshop carefully designed to accommodate training and repairs on a full-scale bus beneath the industrial styled canopy-roof structure.
Parking and possible future extensions are envisaged to the south of the campus allowing for safety and growth, within an ethos of sustainability and a landscape purposefully planted with indigenous and water-wise character, further enhancing the positive and hospitable learning environment desired by the company.

Team:
Building contractor – EMCON Construction, structural & civil engineer – De Villiers Sheard cc, quantity surveyor – LDM Group, electrical engineer – GJ & A Consulting, mechanical engineer – Nako Triocon, landscape architect – Tarna Klitzener