WSP in Africa
What We Do
Property & Buildings

Property & Buildings

In Africa, Building Services has over 150 staff members made up of engineers, consultants, modelling & simulation technicians. We offer expertise covering the engineering of iconic buildings and providing sustainability services for new and existing buildings.

Sectors Services Projects Insights News People

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Sectors
Services
Projects
Insights
News
People

We use the latest technology including Building Information Modelling (BIM) and we provide services to transform the built environment.

Operating from South Africa and into Africa, our specialist skills backed by a global reach make us the service provider of choice – whatever the challenge might be.

Sectors

Engineering-Consultancy-Commercial-Building-Projects

Commercial and Mixed Use

We have delivered tens of millions of square meters of office space for investors, developers and occupiers around the world. Our work is focused on office and mixed-use buildings and includes new build and refurbishment projects, high-rise developments and business parks.

Education

When working with educational institutions our teams strive to create stimulating, collaborative, and safe learning environments that foster the critical thinkers of the future. Our projects span the entire education sector, from nurseries, primary and secondary schools to colleges and some of the world’s most prestigious universities.

Government

At WSP, we understand the many challenges involved in public sector development and use our in-depth knowledge of local social, political, and economic conditions to deliver sustainable projects that meet local needs.

Hospitality

WSP knows hospitality. Over the past few decades, our experts have delivered more than 500 projects across 80 countries, building in-depth experience across all parts of this global industry, from refurbishing heritage hotels to designing vast entertainment complexes, from budget conscious facilities to luxury beach resorts.

Sports and Stadia

Sports venues should bring communities together, fostering local identity and pride. Sports arenas have the power to light up a city’s skyline, put a region on the map, and bring together all parts of a diverse community. Getting people into pools and onto running tracks, they quite literally boost the health and vitality of a neighbourhood. But juggling local needs and sensitivities with the intense pressures of the international sports world can be a challenge.

Residential

A number of tendencies are changing the residential sector. A combination of demographic and social trends are causing household sizes to shrink. In many large cities across the world, there is shortage of available land for building residential space while the pressure of urbanization and increased population upsurge the demand for property in urban centres.

Services

Building Information Modelling - BIM
Fire Engineering
Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning (HVAC)
Visualisation for CADD, CAVE, and Litigation
Acoustics, Noise and Vibrations
Facade Engineering
Structural Engineering
Refrigeration and Cold Storage
Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing
Vertical Transportation

Projects

Birmingham, UK

Hotel La Tour, Birmingham

La Tour is a 4-star hotel in Birmingham city centre. The hotel boasts highest quality and luxury finishes with 174 bedrooms, 450 m² of conferencing facilities, a restaurant, bar and gym.

London, England, UK

The Shard, London

The Shard is the tallest building in Western Europe. The 306 m high iconic tower has redefined the London skyline and is already an international symbol for London.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Petronas Towers and Kuala Lumpur City Centre

A landmark of Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers, were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world.

London, England, UK

22 Bishopsgate

Ingenious engineering by WSP has put the tallest City of London tower on the road to net zero

Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE

Yas Bay Waterfront Destination

Yas Bay is a new waterfront destination development located on the southern part of Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. It will be one of the UAE’s most iconic and vibrant waterfront destinations offering a broad array of entertainment options including restaurants, hotels and a state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena. The destination will include a waterfront promenade and a pier with more than 50 cafés and restaurants, 20 retail outlets, a cinema, a beach club, and two hotels.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Parramatta Square, Western Sydney

A mixed-use precinct transforming Parramatta into Sydney’s second central business district.

Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE

Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi

Zayed National Museum will be the centrepiece of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District in Abu Dhabi and will showcase the history and culture of the UAE.

London, England, UK

Principal Place, London

Principal Place will be a major new mixed-use development on the City and Shoreditch border in EC2, London. The development comprises a mixture of uses, including a contemporary Grade A commercial office building and a landmark residential tower set as well as a 0.5 acre public piazza.

London, England, UK

Craven Cottage

Craven Cottage has been the home of Fulham FC for over 100 years, and for the past twenty, WSP has been providing the club with engineering advice. In 2013, we helped them gain planning permission for the replacement of their Riverside Stand; but when the club was sold, the project was shelved.

Johannesburg, South Africa

OR Tambo International Airport Domestic Terminal Expansion

OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) is the primary airport in the southern African sub-region, performing a significant role in Africa’s overall trade development.

Insights

February 2021

Embracing Indigenous Cultures to Address Infrastructure Needs

	Feature
	Places , Resilience , Society

August 2020

The Future Ready Commuter Car Park

	Australia
	Feature
	Mobility , COVID-19 , Society

May 2020

Developing Organization Resilience through Asset Management to Respond to COVID-19

	United States
	Feature
	COVID-19 , Resilience , Places , Society , Mobility

October 2019 | 4

The Power of Holistic Engineering

	Blog
	Resilience

August 2018 | 7 minutes

All Aboard The Metro Tunnel

	Blog
	Mobility

thn-circadian-lighting-sap-success-factors-offices

May 2018 | 4 minutes

Lighting For Circadian Rhythm – A Desirable Trend?

	Blog
	Places

April 2018 | 9 minutes

Blank Canvas Can We Make A Totally Recyclable Building

	Blog
	Places

thn-pacific-park-brooklyn-transportation-buildings-converge-vanderbilt-yard

March 2017 | 10:45 minutes

Transportation and Buildings Converge at Brooklyn’s Pacific Park

	United States
	Feature
	Mobility , Places

THU_Insights_The_Vertical_Campus_Inside_Office

September 2016 | 4 minutes

Innovative Office Towers Are Taking Shape in Asia

	Feature
	Places , Society

August 2015 | 4 minutes

Is the Sky the Limit?

	Feature
	Places , Society

News

29 July 2021

Commercial property trends in Africa: Designed for resilience, built to be future-proofed

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seen three major trends emerge as drivers of investment in Africa’s Commercial Property space.

25 January 2021

The Extraordinary Technical Challenges of A Unique Historic Restoration

The extraordinary technical challenges faced by WSP / Lievense during the renovation and expansion of Palais Het Loo, a 17^th century palace and one of the Netherlands’ most popular museums, included jacking up the listed palace buildings, a discontinuous ground water level, a basement constructed underwater and an immovable deadline.

02 November 2020

Head For Heights?

At the junction of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers of Chongqing in southern China stands the recently topped out Raffles City, where you can visit the world’s highest skybridge – if you dare!

19 May 2020

Property review: Lighter side of industrial property showing returns

Many businesses operating in South Africa are cautiously optimistic for what is in store for the remainder of this year.

thn-European Steel Design Award Bild 1 low Foto Lars Hamrebjrk

18 November 2019

Steel Award for Kiruna City Hall

Congratulations to our colleagues from WSP Sweden, whose project, the Kiruna City Hall, won a European Steel Design Award of Merit at the European Steel Design Awards held in Brussels on 14 October 2019.

16 October 2019

WSP awarded top category honours at Steel Awards 2019

WSP in Africa are proud of their team’s involvement in the project to upgrade the Fourways Mall Promotions Court, which received the ASTPM Tubular Category award at the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) Steel Awards 2019.

12 July 2019

WSP engineers involved in two projects recognised in SAPOA 2019 Awards

WSP in Africa proudly acknowledge the contributions of the firm’s engineers to two winning projects in the Industrial Development and Overall Transformation categories of the 2019 SAPOA Property Development Awards for Innovative Excellence, as announced in June.