RCL Foods Head Office, South Africa

This design project engaged with a relocation of five individual office sites to the RCL Foods head office. Working closely with the client team and JT Ross, Novospace acted collaboratively as the alchemist to create a new working environment and business culture identity reflected in the unique crafted interior. The building, arranged over four levels of offices, focuses on a dramatic central atrium, the ‘heart’ of the building, to which all workspace, meeting spaces and food functions integrally relate. This creates an opportunity for chance interaction and a connected working environment.

The brief revolved around generating a workspace focused on RCL Foods’ number one asset, namely its people. RCL Foods were emphatic about the environment fostering a sense of unity, defining a new culture with the creation of energetic and creative spaces with connectivity and collaboration being paramount. The program called for the integration of test and development kitchens, a public food shop, cafés, a skybar, canteens and numerous touchdown and breakout areas. This was underscored by the requirement to provide an efficient and flexible work space, with the overriding intention to facilitate an amazing crafted office, designed to attract and retain talent and personnel.

RCL Foods wanted to create an office building that differentiated from their competition and became a destination for clients and staff. After extensive research of various corporates in a similar field, Novospace developed two concepts for consideration: the first being ‘edgy modern’ and the second being ‘funky raw’. Research showed that while competing corporates enjoyed amazing spaces, the ‘vanilla’ and the familiar was the overriding thread. ‘Vanilla’ corporate outcomes are singularly prevalent and this point of departure was adopted to create a unique, crafted industrial aesthetic. The development of the two base concepts ultimately yielded an interior to inspire its occupants and to create a truly African working environment.