timeball tower
urban
client:
Durban Point Development
Company
location:
Point Precinct
Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal
MERITS
KZNIA Award of Merit : 2009
South African Institute of Steel
Construction Award for
Technical Excellence : 2008
Proposal
The new urban development at the Point in Durban warranted a need for an installation consisting of three interrelated components: an urban device, an information capsule and viewing deck and public ablutions off the amphitheatre at canal level.
Heritage
The new tower design serves as a tangible connection to the memory of Durban’s old Timeball tower, used by ships during the early 1900’s to determine local time. The historical significance of the Timeball is mapped out along the timber deck floor in the form of sandblasted artwork within glazed roof lights which also incorporates narrative text and images of neighbouring markers.
Tower
The forty six metre high Timeball is a slender column rising from a two and a half metre diameter concrete drum, whilst the steel body with structural rings and tension rods extends from this point terminating along a twelve metre streik. Architectural expression of the new tower is derived from the harbour’s inherent industrial identity with the injection of the port’s heritage of artistic and international cultural influences
Hand-Craft
An ethnic and artistic element to the tower design led to an investigation of sculptural techniques using wire as a universally recognisable craft medium to give shape to the spire. Mesh cowlings clad the tower allowing for the core structure beneath to become visible, creating a mantle over the structure.
The discs suspended along the tower are reminiscent of the image of bangles along a woman’s arm.
Information Capsule + Exhibition Deck
The Capsule’s structural steel ribs follow the rhythm of the auditorium extending over the ablution and deck. The capsule forms a frameless transparent ‘box’ which eliminates visual barriers between inside and outside. Construction materials have been chosen for their machine-like quality in contrast to the stonewall of the ablutions, which was reconstituted from the original historical stone of the Point.
Timeball tower, Timeball Square and the Timeball Boulevard are all interrelated contemporary markers to the heritage of the original historic landmark. A poly-rhythmic layering of structure, aesthetic and memory, has generated the Timeball as a contemporary urban intervention.