The Franschhoek Motor Museum

The Franschhoek Motor Museum on the L’Ormarins Estate in Franschhoek has one of South Africa’s largest collections of classic and vintage vehicles. The vehicles are housed in four identical buildings and kept in a temperature controlled and dehumidified environment. The design of the four buildings is in sympathy with the Cape Dutch architecture of the estate’s historic buildings. The exhibition halls are also arranged around a central rectangular area similar to the traditional werf of Cape Dutch homesteads. The museum’s collection includes iconic vehicles such as the Volkswagen Beetle and legendary manufacturers such as Bugatti and Ferrari. One of the oldest vehicles in the collection is an 1898 Beeston motor tricycle. Only eighty vehicles are on display at any given time. Four more buildings — hidden from view — were constructed to store all the cars not on display and to accommodate mechanical workshops and stores.

Ground conditions presented a major challenge in this contract. Piling was done to some of the buildings, and raft foundation slabs were introduced to breach the poor soil conditions. External roads and surfaces were all exposed concreted surfaces, for which Isipani’s subcontractor, Melt Wahl Concrete Services, was awarded a Fulton Award for Excellence in the Use of Concrete from the Concrete Society of Southern Africa. Roof cladding was a tiger-eye finish to blend in with the estate’s thatch roofs.