Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

FNB Westbank Building / Architect Consortium

Architects: Fairbairn Architects MDS Architecture CNN Architects MMA Design Studio
Location: Fairlands, Johannesburg South Africa
Project Team: MMA Architects , MDS Architecture, CNN Architects, Fairbairn Architects
Interior Décor: MMA Architects , MDS Architecture, CNN Architects, Fairbairn Architects
Project Year: 2008
Photographer: MMA_Sourced
Website: Varous

- 28 June 2016
- Edwin Seda
Commercial , Commercial Centres , Contemporary , Contemporary African Directory ,

The new FNB home loans and Wesbank building in the North of Johannesburg was designed in consortium with 3 other practices. It is an eclectic mix that resonates well with traditional African design tenets of amalgamated forms and landscapes which ultimately create a skin of intricate shells and forms that almost always seem to work together in acrimonious harmony.

FNB Westbank Building / MMA Architects , MDS Architecture, CNN Architects, Fairbairn Architects

The idea was an attempt at modernizing African culture in a financial setting, borrowing from elements and systems that have long been perfected by indigenous African societies and traditions and simply expressing them with new materials and maintaining the judicious catholic ideologies that punctuate the style.

FNB Westbank Building / MMA Architects , MDS Architecture, CNN Architects, Fairbairn Architects

The result is an idea that’s whilst may need time to grow up on you, once it does, it undeniably sets its stage as a new style that can dominate the saturated expressions of African traditional architecture and transculturation of elements into coherent ideas.

FNB Westbank Building / MMA Architects , MDS Architecture, CNN Architects, Fairbairn Architects

The glass seems to work well in the curvy ‘ drum’ feel and the lighting effects washes the interiors to avoid the eerie feels that bank buildings have been characterized with, a somewhat corporate tightness to spatial disposition.

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The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ebene / Jean Francois Koenig Architect
Few projects within Mauritius pride themselves in having a keen sense of contextual performance and impact. The Mauritius Bank Building has had a marked influence, not only on The Mauritius Commercial Bank as a brand , but to the wider public of Mauritius. People have reacted very positively...

- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...
- © FNB Westbank Building _MMA, MDS, CNN Fairbairn ...

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