A city-centre exhibition hall in Harare, drawn around one ambition: transparent walls that read as pure horizon. The client wanted large glazed surfaces and long spans without the envelope fighting the African sun.
A city-centre exhibition hall in Harare, drawn around one ambition: transparent walls that read as pure horizon. The client wanted large glazed surfaces and long spans without the envelope fighting the African sun.
Each chapter records a decision the next project team can evaluate: intent, performance, production and site delivery.
The concept pushed two limits at once — wide transparent openings that demand more structure, and ultra-slim vertical sight-lines that demand less of it. We resolved the conflict with a hybrid: a semi-exposed, staggered-joint stick curtain wall carried on aluminium-clad steel long-span framing, so the steel does the heavy lifting behind the scenes while the visible grid stays slender.
Harare's tropical-savanna climate set the materials agenda. Intense solar UV and seasonal heavy rain rule out commodity coatings — we specified 6063-T5/T6 precision profiles with a 3-coat, 40 μm PVDF fluorocarbon finish for long-term colour and gloss retention under the African sun. The main elevations use double-silver low-E laminated insulating glass; the rooflight assemblies step up to argon-filled multi-glazing on TPS warm-edge spacers to keep condensation off the interior during cool highveld nights.
The entrance geometry includes subtle double-curved facade segments. Rather than approximate the curve with flat segments, we roll-bent the aluminium profiles in-factory so the glass transitions run seamless as drawn. Every module was pre-assembled, QA-photographed and sequentially packed in container order for the ocean leg to Beira and onward to site.
Delivery ran as pure T1: our engineering team never set foot on site. The local contracting crew worked from our full shop-drawing set, material test reports and assembly manuals, with our engineers on call for setting-out checks and marked-up drawing responses. A technical evidence package was prepared for the client's local Zimbabwe third-party building-authority review — we supply the evidence, the local authority approves.
Design & Supply + remote engineering support
2,150 m² hybrid envelope pre-assembled, QA-photographed and shipped in one sequenced production run
Roll-bent curved profiles delivered the double-curved entrance transitions with no site rework
PVDF coating and warm-edge rooflight specification documented for high-UV, high-rainfall exposure
Local crew completed assembly under remote engineering support, with technical evidence lodged for local third-party review
This is a clearly labelled reference study using representative imagery. It explains a facade approach and is not presented as commissioned Starveil work.
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