TAL supplied various products to install almost 7000m² of glazed stoneware tiles to the Soweto Theatre in Jabulani in 2012.
Seven years later, the exterior façade still makes a stunning visual impact for visitors to the complex. We take a look back at this iconic project, and the specialised system used for the installation.
At the time of the project, the company issued a materials and methods specification for the facade cladding, which entailed fixing glazed stoneware tiles in a mosaic format. Weekly site inspections were done by the technical team to ensure tiling proceeded as per the specification and provided site reports for the tiling installation.
“When challenges were confronted, the team called in TAL to investigate and issue the relevant TAL spec to suit the situation and supply the best product,” says Renton Haskell, site engineer for the main contractor on the project.
The theatre consists of a 420 seat main venue and two smaller venues. The three theatre boxes were tiled with glazed stoneware tiles in three primary colours; red, blue and yellow, to make them easily identifiable.
“The brief called for three boxes to be used for theatrical performances and we devised the idea that these boxes had to be coloured for ease of identification and that the character of the entire building would primarily derive from these colours,” says Tatenda H. Mavunga, architect at Afritects.
Each theatre box has a domed roof where TAL Sureproof was used to waterproof junctions between the panels. “When approached by the main contractor with concerns regarding the possibility of excessive movement in the precast panels making up the dome at the top and bottom structures, a highly modified adhesive suitable for those areas was developed in our laboratory, and special batches were manufactured specifically for the project,” says Sharon Margon, TAL Technical Advice Supervisor. Other products used in this installation included TAL Goldstar 6; TAL Keycoat; TAL Bond and light grey TAL Wall & Floor Grout.
The architects were after a non-homogenous, textured, shiny and bright cladding surface that is graffiti resistant and easily washable. Another condition was for the surface colours to be fade resistant so that they won’t deteriorate over time.
Ceramica vogue 100x100mm glazed stoneware tiles were used for the cladding as they fulfilled these requirements and allowed for a modular application that could be manipulated to make the necessary curves. These tiles also provided variations of the primary colours in matt and shiny, and dark and light finishes, which resulted in a rich and textured cladding.
“A surface that could reflect solar radiation and thereby reduce the heat load on the building was another requirement of the cladding for the Soweto Theatre,” says Mavunga. Afritects selected these glazed stoneware tiles for the cladding of the theatre as they have high heat capacity relative to other cladding systems and absorb heat energy with minimal gains in temperature, therefore reducing the heat transferred to the inside of the building and saving energy through reduced air-conditioning usage.
“At a recent site visit, the installation at the Soweto Theatre still looks as good as it did seven years ago, and we expect this to be the case for many years to come”, concludes Gela Ohl, TAL Marketing Manager.