Lynnette Johns
Business Writer
THREE Cape Town architects have been chosen to design the expansion for the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) that will see it double in size.
Yesterday the CTICC announced that the award-winning trio of Piet Bakker of Stauch Voster Architects, Anya van der Merwe of Van der Merwe Miszewski Architects and Moneka Makeka of Makeka Design Lab had been awarded the contract.
The expansion will be part of a 10-year construction phase in the Foreshore and V&A Waterfront that will see close to R10 billion poured into reviving and expanding the area.
Van der Merwe says the buildings are designed as a seamless extension of the CTICC to provide complementary space for large exhibitions or conferences, while being able to operate as an independent facility.
Convenco said work on the estimated R4.5bn project was due to start next year and be completed by 2015. The CTICC is owned, via Convenco, by the City of Cape Town and the provincial government.
Centre CEO Rashid Toefy said the expansion would create an iconic convention centre within the redeveloped Foreshore and would take up 10 000m2 of retail space. It would include a hospital, hotel and office tower. It would also contribute to the regeneration of Founder’s Garden by the province, which will connect the Artscape precinct with the centre.
“It is the goal of the CTICC to be the best long-haul international convention centre by 2020 and this exciting expansion project and the calibre of architects who have been appointed to lead the process, are essential.”