Barloworld & Caterpillar Head Office and Showroom - (Winner Commercial, Commendation Architectural)

Fittingly, Barloworld Equipment’s impressive new head office and Caterpillar equipment showroom in Isando breaks new ground. ⁠
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The 3200m² showroom bubble was built to face directly on to the busy R24 – creating the ultimate traffic stopper, commanding immediate attention with its striking shape and the machinery that inspired it displayed inside in two sections, one for track Caterpillars, the other for those with tyres. ⁠
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Architecturally, the only straight feature in the bubble structures is the glass frontage. The project team needed to achieve curved roofs and sides that sealed with the straight lines to make the structures weatherproof and thermally insulated.⁠
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A steel girder framework was created to provide for the track-shaped design of each of the two bubbles, with large spanning trusses that carry the roofs, all sitting on a specially devised grid to accommodate the different-sized equipment required. ⁠
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