Boogertman + Partners were briefed to renew the retail offering along Fraser Street that connects Pritchard Street and Jeppe Street within the FNB Bank City precinct in the inner city of Johannesburg. The client required an upgrade of the old Fraser Street to an upbeat more attractive and exciting space that would encourage more engagement between the precinct, staff and tenants at street level. This upgrade is the first phase of an R 100 million commitment by FNB to revitalise the precinct and their building.

A world-first in its scale of application, the street surface design features bright, bold patterns that traverse the length of the space, run up and over planters and stairs bringing colour and life into a mostly monochromatic landscape.

Though the building was built in the late ’80s due to its neoclassical style the design concept centred around a modern insertion into a ‘400’ year old building. This was represented in the sleek new shopfronts, minimal light fittings and urban furniture. Existing plant beds, water features and trees in the precinct were kept and included into a cohesive design and mapping of the space with a surface application of 3 000m2 of an environmentally friendly rubberised floor called Melos, a German EPDM product.

The pattern of the floor intends to suggest desire lines of the pedestrians within the street and colours were chosen to represent the companies that sit under the First Rand Group, red for Ashburton, black for RMB, turquoise and orange for Wesbank & FNB.