 Elkanah House : Phase IIIMoroff
& Kühne have been involved in the Elkanah House Project
together with NMC since the first phase in December 2004. The
school, located in Tableview, Cape Town on 2.6 ha of land, comprises
four campuses which allowed for 400 students. Phase II, once
completed in December 2005 enabled the school to enrol an additional
300 students.
The third phase marked the third collaboration between NMC, Nic Border Architects, Brite Projects and Moroff & Kühne Consulting Engineers. This third extension included a new school hall, auditorium, courtyard, additional classrooms and a double storey administration building. The design phase for this stage of the building began in mid 2006, with construction starting early in 2007. "We had very strict deadlines as the school had already accepted an intake based on the school's extended capacity," explains Peter Gouvias, Associate at Moroff & Kühne. The main hall required a steel roof design with integrated catwalks. The design of the roof had to be flexible since the sound and lighting experts had at that stage not yet been appointed. Included in the roof design were the requirements to hang 5.5 metre high fold away doors. "Careful consideration had to be given to the deflection once the doors were in a closed position so we designed a pre-camber for the upper track on which the doors would be hung to overcome this," said Peter. "We also had to design an orchestra pit for the main hall, which would eventually be fitted with a hydraulic scissor lift and to the rear of the hall there is a balcony section which canter-levers out with a stepped soffit - all specially designed for the building." Due to the high traffic load of the school building, the staircase up to the balcony features a centre stringer, which is specially designed for the rigors of a public access building. "The school has a very modern feel about it and it is very relaxed and seems to be a great environment for learning," concludes Peter.
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