Keeping urban design local

LOCAL STUDIO

THE FUTURE OF MAKING

Founded in 2012, Local Studio is an architecture firm with its roots in social infrastructure and affordable housing projects. The practice was founded by Thomas Chapman and currently employs 15 full-time staff, conducting projects across the African continent.

The company entered the market in an interesting time in South Africa when, in places like Johannesburg, there was a lot of funding allocated to non-profit organisations to do social infrastructure projects like schools and community centres.

By 2015, Local Studio had started to define the work it was doing and specialised heavily in lightweight steel construction and utilising alternative construction technologies to create living spaces from old industrial buildings.

BOOGERTMAN + PARTNERS | FOURWAYS MALL

How to build one of the biggest malls in Africa

THE FUTURE OF MAKING

From the birth of the Fourways Mall project Boogertman + Partners championed the professional team’s vision to work fully within the BIM environment. Delivering an extremely complex retail development required all the obvious benefits a BIM workflow would bring to the project. The Fourways Mall project was a mammoth redevelopment, taking the existing Fourways Mall and turning it into one of the largest in South Africa.

This redevelopment is the first stage of the Fourways masterplan. The project’s success was the result of bringing in the right people across all the professional teams and using the latest, most relevant, Autodesk technology at each stage of the project.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Improving service delivery with in-house expertise

THE FUTURE OF MAKING

The South African Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) services several governmental entities which include the Department of Correctional Services, the South African Police Service, and the Department of Justice, to name a few.

When maintenance or new capital infrastructure is needed, the DPWI is brought on board to assess the requirements and make a recommendation to outsource service or do it in-house. DPWI is essentially the “Handy Man” of the State.

Although most major projects are outsourced, the DPWI now has the necessary skills to operate on a level playing field with many of its contractors. With the implementation of Autodesk software, most notably AutoCAD and Revit, the department can facilitate projects when there is a need to execute quickly.

The result is a department that will be able to save millions of Rands across various projects by utilizing their in-house experts.

LOCAL STUDIO