Africa’s Diamond Capital Invests in a Futuristic Innovation Hub

SHoP, which also designed the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the NBA’s Nets, applied that background to a concept that sought to adapt their American expertise to southern Africa. The hub features an abundance of outdoor spaces, including a leafy courtyard and an amphitheater, designed to promote collaboration. Local artisans were commissioned to incorporate traditional home-decoration patterns. It’s a building designed with an often-torrid climate in mind: Self-shading components of the façade, glazed high-performance glass, and the green roof help keep the building cool. There have even been complaints in the summer that the building is too cold, said Steven Garcia, project director at the firm. “From the outset there was a real focus on a sustainability and performative aspect to the project.”

During construction of the Barclays Center, the firm developed an iPhone app to scan and track through production and assembly stages. With this project an ocean away in Gaborone, they relied even more heavily on that technology, in concert with local architects, work crews and a fabricator in Cape Town that received and produced designs transmitted direct from New York. “To cut your teeth on a project that was $980 million, you’re kind of like, ‘If we can do that, let’s see if we can scale that to a place like Botswana,’” Sharples said.

But the Icon Building hit a series of snags and construction delays. The discovery of a structural mistake paused construction, which brought on additional scrutiny from local legislators. Then the coronavirus closed borders and slowed progress down again. Tenants have now started moving in, including a mechanized mining company that intends to bring automated operations to the country.

Government officials maintain that the hub embodies a national priority of transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy. The Icon Building is also envisioned as draw for visitors — a departure from the more utilitarian mirrored-glass office blocks in Gaborone and other African cities that have signaled post-colonial progress. Future occupants will be key to reaching that goal. “What the building is doing, it’s definitely is a catalyst,’’ Sharples said. “This kind of collective, research, cross-pollination is still somewhat new territory. That even comes down to how do you lease this space.” 

Where SHoP’s building will fit into the greater fabric of Africa’s contemporary architecture remains to be seen. New projects across the continent range from the sky-scraping Pinnacle Towers under construction in Nairobi — set to be the tallest in Africa — to the work of the prolific South African firm Paragon Group, such as its Brazilian modernism-inspired AFGRI head office building. Many are designed around efficiency — a critical feature in countries where power and water shortages occur regularly. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for example, the Lideta Mercato by Spain’s Vilalto Studio incorporates a host of innovative sustainability features, including solar panels and rainwater collection, into an indoor mall whose prefab concrete facade shields the building from the sun. As its cities expand, the hope is that the continent may be able to leapfrog to the latest green building practices.  

Botswana will be challenged to leave its legacy of diamond extraction behind. Built to symbolize the nation’s future as a place that cultivates ideas rather than excavates a finite resource, the innovation hub is set to be a big part of that process. “The biggest frustration of this project is that it’s not done yet,’’ Sharples said. “What we’re proud to say is that it was accomplished by local labor and local manufacturing — that’s where the technology plays itself out in such a beautiful and poetic way.”