OLWAZINI DISCOVERY CENTRE/GOLDEN HORSE CASINO

The Olwazini Discovery Centre is a science museum located within the Golden Horse Casino Complex in the Scottsville Race course in Pietermaritzburg. The museum was developed to increase tourism within the Pietermaritzburg region and in particular was aimed at illustrating simple science concepts for developing communities. The interior designers - Egg Design wanted to blend the colonial history of Pietermaritzburg with the modern technology of the science artefacts, A need for rural South African environment coupled with a sophisticated interior was required. The interior designer approached Maccaferri/African Gabions wanting to use a gabion cladding around columns - 310mm x 460mm x 2.5m high. In order to maximize thickness of 200 mm. In addition, 2 free standing gabion walls, up to 2.5m high, were required.

Special L-shaped units were manufactured from woven hexagonal double twisted mesh for placing and lacing together around the rectangular columns. The units were made from the units on site. The lids and bases were supplied separately and laced on site. Two units were laced around the column to form the cladding without the need for any further adhesive or anchorage to the columns. Braces were used from the outer to inner facing to eliminate any bulging. The free standing walls were constructed with standard gabion units. The units were cut and shaped on site. The use of these unique units allowed for: - Thin Cladding - no additional adhesive material to fix the units to the columns, - standard lacing and bracing techniques for gabions to be utilised to fix the units to the columns. The ease with the mesh could be shaped on site allowed: - easy adjustments of units to accomodate discrepancies in the columns dimensions - a reduction in transportation costs - increased productivity.