A beautiful old ‘modern’ building lay dormant on the Foreshore – an empty vessel with outdated services, poor light, and insufficient life support systems in desperate need of refurbishment to attract new tenants. The old Chevron building on the Foreshore of Cape Town was built in the 60’s and extended into the 70’s.

The structure of the building includes an exoskeleton precast concrete façade which made cutting into the structure to create the ‘floating plasma façade’ a challenge. Bomax redesigned and coordinated all the services for the building with the help of a team of expert engineers.

A staircase in The Link building connecting to a Virgin Active created an opportunity for Bomax to express a dynamic design reflecting movement. The wide treads and easy risers draw the user up on a spiraling vertical journey to the gym with ease of motion.

The staircase was ultimately inspired by the dynamic movements of the human body in sport. This concept along with the choice of colour successfully speaks of the Virgin Active brand without the need for signage.

To manufacture the ribbon design the stair had to be divided into components that could be custom made in a workshop from a 3D model designed by Bomax. Each component was then delivered and welded on site to create a seamless ribbon that changes in size constantly as one journeys up the staircase, therefore enhancing a sense of fluidity and motion as one climbs.