Window fail!

A little while ago I wrote about the new developement around the Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre area.. I quite like that building with the mansard roof, but after all the comments on that post I’ve kinda grown to see just how badly that building works.

And its not the only one around that area.

I noticed this the other day (or rather my mom did, when she was in the shop, and told me about it).

Its a bit hard to see from outside, but here’s a shot from inside..

Pretty savage right? The woman who runs the store told me that a guy from a glass fitters came in and had a look at it, and apparently the problem was that the glass pane had been installed and fixed simply with silicone, and they hadn’t put in anything to allow for expansion. She only moved into the building a couple of weeks ago and found that all the direct sunlight coming directly into the room through all the massive glazing made the space unbearably hot so, after being told she wasn’t allowed to but loovers up on the outside of the building (because of all the master planning guidlines) she simply put in huge blinds, screened the windows off and turned the aircon up. Recipe for dissaster? Huge pane of glass: baking hot sun on one side, icy cold on the other. Which is why this happened.

The building looks decent, and the units above must work, but clearly the shop fronts just don’t.

Bleh.

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So I had to jump some fences but…

…I went to have a look around the Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre development, and took some photos. Unfortunately my camera’s battery ran dry, and I had to take the rest the pics with my crappy little camera phone, but you get the idea..

Its really exciting to see how much thought has been put into this development, that’s been slowly taking shape over the last few years. The project is facilitated under a broad set of aesthetic guidelines, which creates a cohesive and elegant urban landscape. You can read about the Architectural and Corporate Identity guide lines in the freely available release notes from Moreland Developers.

“Worldwide the trend is to discovering a
new urbanism—an emphasis on exquisitely
designed, safe, convenient and extremely
well-managed cities that nurture human
culture and dignity while being powerful
economic generators and job creators.
Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre is enthused
with this vision and focuses, on one
hand, on a public environment of quality
and distinction while exhorting private developers
to surpass these high ideals with
their individual contributions to the whole.”

The Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre Vision

I especially like how pedestrian orientated the town planning is..

And as always, the indigenous planting is a huge improvement on the previously popular and totally out of context palm trees.

Similarly, large existing trees have been preserved.

All in all, very exciting stuff..

BTW. Would’ve been super amped on that zigzag ramp/stair set up if I hadn’t seen it somewhere else before.. Tried to find it in my Stumble favorites but I couldn’t. Still pretty rad though.

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