One of the great sadnesses of Johannesburg's paranoic, outward sprawl over the past couple of decades has been its architectural implication. For while the city's Art Deco gems rot away in its forsaken urban core, out in the security-obsessed 'burbs, the closest you'll get to an historical landmark is some steel-and-glass, teenaged shopping mall. Cape Town has the V&A, and we have the Randburg Waterfront. There is no grime, no grit, no history. And this is half of why Braamfontein Werf promises to be quite so special.

The other half has to do with a few bold visionaries -a small group of independent developers, committed to transforming these few, forgotten blocks of flaking warehouses and rusting industrial shells into some kind of funky retail, media and residential precinct, along the lines of London's newly fashionable East End. Their shared energy, imagination and progressive choice of tenants is likely to transform The Werf into Hipville, Johannesburg, before the year is done.

Tucked halfway between Melville and Wits, The Werf could put the "location, location, location" into any real estate pitch. Not only is it far enough away from the dreaded city to park an A4, it is also within spitting distance of RAU and the SABC. Two blocks south lies Empire Road; two north -the intended artery to the Nelson Mandela Bridge and the ever-pending Newtown Renaissance. And yet, until re- cently, developers had somehow over- looked the potential of the area. It had become what they cali a "dead pocket". The construction of the Empire Road fly- over seemed to have put the last nail on the area's coffin.

It was about five years ago that architect Jonathan Gimpel was approached by the Mail & Guardian to revamp their Braamfontein offices. Gimpel, who had long been an advocate for urban sustainability, persuaded them to abandon their corporate premises and pour their money into renovating the vacant Blue Ribbon Bakery in the heart of the Werf. The result was the Media Mill, an industrial- styled complex, incorporating the M&G and a few small media businesses.

Gimpel had been connected with this area for the past 20 years. His father had a business here and he was familiar with many of the buildings, but the jewel he'd had his eye on was the Atlas Bakery, a block up from the Media Mill. With 8 000m² of metal-tiled floor space, it was an ideal location for TV studios. Its vaulted concrete ceilings would provide the large, column-free floor spaces required, while the building's proximity to the SABC was perfect for smaller production houses.

Built in 1951 as Coca-Cola's headquarters, the triple-volume space had gone on to house the Atlas Bakery for decades, but the deregulation of the bread game a few years back had left it vacant. Indeed, in the past five years, it had become dilapidated -playing host to a couple of funky house parties and a lot of itinerant bums.

Gimpel and his architect wife, Lorien, had already initiated some similarly exciting urban transformations. Their own offices had once been the original dairy for the farm of Melville, and an old coal factory in Botswana was transformed into an entertainment centre. Yet Atlas was Gimpel's most ambitious project to date.

It was early last year, while Gimpel was negotiating, that Brian Green -tousle- haired ex-news cameraman and owner of The Gasworks' Post Production at the Media Mill- began poking through some of the buildings in The Werf A couple of months later, his brother-in-Iaw, Grant Bailey, popped up from Cape Town, look- ing for premises to open a venue.

Bailey had long secured his nightlife cred with Cape Town's legendary Club More, The Magnet and The Curve. Not only had he set a rare, funky tone halfway between clubs and lounges, Bailey had designed the venues himself, as well as a couple of impressive bars on Long Island, New York. Now Bailey was ready for Johannesburg and Braamfontein Werf was his location of choice. When he and Green stumbled across a series of 11 old warehouses and offices on Stanley Avenue, they knew they'd hit the spot.

While none of the buildings was extraordinary, Green was taken by the mining-style overhead bridges that connected them. The warren-Iike spaces between them also lent themselves to the sort of intimate, off-street, outdoor shopping precinct that Jo'burg cries out for. Because of the buildings' condition however, they were unbondable, and so Green teamed up with Durban architec! Miles Pennington and developer Mark Batchelor and offered the landlords, Old Mutual, a deal. They would lease the buildings for a restoration period, and buy them when it was completed.

The deal was good for Green in thatil limited his initial expenditure. He offered shells to various production companies, and set about securing an elite retail mix At this stage, it is set to include the stylish Midlands lifestyle nursery, St Verde; Adrian Hope's outdoor furniture and Franschhoek's exclusive La Grange. Bailey's decorating guru sister, Lulu, will open an eclectic decor store here, while Bailey's own venture, The Color Bar, is set to open in April, complete with an Australian cordon bleu chef. The full group of buildings, known as 44 Stanley Ave, should be open by the end of the year.

Mid-Iast year, another possibili! emerged in the area. Ricci Polack, a young, energetic civil engineer from Cape Town had come up to Jo'burg to make so money. "I never wanted to be a developer, he says nonchalantly. "I just wanted ! make enough cash to go to film school' Polack began looking for some good, sor light industria[ buildings to turn in! residential lofts. "I either wanted somethin from the 2Os or the 60s and lOs," he say "From when they still built well."

Again, there was nothing particular[ stunning about the three buildings he spol ted across the street from Atlas, but th~ superb volumes and central courtyar struck Polack as ideal for his plan. Aft months of wrangling with Chubb, who own the buildings, Polack and his team mov in late last year, and set about creating Th Refinery -a collection of 25 lofts, incorp rating a gym, two lap pools, a raised gard and communal terrace, complete with se iced Teppenyaki braai.

The lofts -of which almost all are sol and a few are already inhabited -prese the ultimate in funky, post-industrial livin Raw-brick walls, industrial windows a sufficient volume for mezzanines creal that spacious studio feel we've all hanker after since Flashdance. Ranging from 120 500m², each space has its individual ch81 acter, and so far, the tenants all fit the area funky, young media profile. In one apartment, the building's existing industrial staircases have been recycled. Another is a triplex -linked with a clunking original goods elevator. Polack's own home includes curved interior walls and a water feature, while the building's fayade has been brightened up with a mosaic frieze of the Jozi skyline. "We've basically offered shells to people at reasonable prices, and let them customise them themselves," says Polack.

As with Atlas Studios and Stanley Av- enue, there has been a commitment throughout to re-using original fittings and retaining the industrial feel. In each case, the developers have cleverly minimised their start-up costs by staggering the development process and simply providing tenants with the basics. At Atlas, Gimpel is offering "dry-hire" studios -which basically means a shell, complete with technical necessities but no equipment. This hasn't stopped Anant Singh and Franz Marx from signing a six- month lease to shoot their new drama series, The Res, here.

Gimpel proudly escorts me to Atlas' rooftop. Flanked by a green belt on the east, in the shadow of the great, rusting shells of Egoli gasworks, The Werf could make for one of Johannesburg's most atmospheric neighbourhoods. Down the road, that lumbering white elephant, the Milpark Holiday Inn, has recently been snatched up for R13 million. But the properties various developers have their eyes on are the series of vacant red- brick factories, owned by Johannesburg Gas, that stretch all the way to Braamfontein. While Atlas will serve the TV market, these, says Gimpel, are sufficiently large to accommodate film studios. "The synergy of all these projects could really create an amazing media precinct," he states. "And d'you know what we'll call it? Jollywood!"

Ultimately, the great hope for The Werf is a domino effect. Its success may well inspire confidence in this type of development, which in turn offers a shiver of possibility to the scores of wasting buildings scattered throughout the city. Who knows? Given a few years and some more imagination, we may even find ourselves downtown.


Story by Adam Levin

Photographs by Graeme Borchers

Courtesy Style Magazine April 2003 Issue

www.stylemagazine.co.za