Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon

Volkskas Bank - now ABSA eMakhazeni (Belfast), Mpumalanga Gabriël Theron (Gawie) FAGAN: Design Architect VOLKSKAS ARCHITECTS: Architect

Date: 1954 Client: Volkskas (now ABSA) Type: Bank Status: Unknown

Two years after his appointment as in-house architect for Volkskas Bank Fagan immediately deviated from the traditional symmetry associated with bank buildings. Applying a system of proportioning based on the Fibonacci series as evolved by Hambidge, which was taught at the Pretoria School, the entrance portico is shifted off to the left and the remaining expanse of wall on the right punctuated by a small window serving the manager's office. Another characteristic modernist element - the horizontal strip window - runs the full length of the facade and illuminates the raked ceiling inside. This ceiling, which affords a volumetric complexity to the interior, is achieved by the simple but innovative inversion of a conventional truss (Silverman, 1998: 136). Books that reference Volkskas Bank - now ABSA Silverman, Melinda. 0. 'Ons bou vir die bank': Nationalism, architecture and Volkskas Bank. : . pg 136, 137