Nigel Sessions, a Director of Davis Langdon Africa (Pty) Ltd, is one of the members of the Working Party of the SA Chapter that will be focusing on building data, awareness and membership in SA, and also forging links into specific other international CTBUH working groups.

Alastair Collins, recently retired as Davis Langdon’s Global Chief Executive, is resident in Cape Town and is the CTBUH country representative for SA.

According to the CTBUH the bulk of South Africa’s tall buildings are “of a certain age”, such as the country’s tallest building, the 223m Carlton Centre office tower in Johannesburg, which was built in 1973. This means that many of these buildings fall short of currently accepted standards for sustainability, health and safety, and the like, which impact on the redevelopment potential of these buildings. However, given the rapid increase in urbanisation in South Africa, the likelihood of urban regeneration during the next decade and South Africa’s emerging prominence as the commercial gateway to Africa, the CTBUH believes there will also be new and iconic tall developments in South African cities which will challenge existing technical and economic awareness. As such there will be tangible value for those able to leverage experience-based knowledge from the CTBUH into the South African market.

The Council’s mission is to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximise the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form.