JOHANNESBURG, 14 July 2019 – The Leonardo, Sandton’s newest skyscraper, is rapidly approaching completion. When finished, it will be Africa’s tallest building. Home to residential, commercial (both office space and retail), and a Legacy hotel, The Leonardo is being considered South Africa’s icon of prosperity.
However, with a building of this size and stature, the impact on the city’s power grid has to be a major consideration. As such, fittings throughout the building have been selected to meet the highest expectations of luxury, quality and power-saving innovation.
To get an insight into the scope in a project of this size, we turned to Major Tech, a specialist importer of lighting, electrical products, switches and sockets, for info on this element of the construction process.
Rhodam Evans, Veti Product Manager at Major Tech says the building will likely house in excess of 10km of strip lighting on completion. The company has to date supplied 6.5km of the strip lighting, over 10 000 panel lights, and 500-star lights – and there are still 20 storeys that require fitment.
In addition, the chosen lighting offers residents and businesses massive power savings and lighting automation – a feature, says Evans, that is unique in apartment buildings.
“Residents will have the option of controlling light settings via a smartphone or tablet,” he says. “This is a hugely innovative feature, and I am not aware of a similar implementation in any other apartment block in South Africa.”
Major Tech has used AA-rated LEDs throughout the building. “We have gone completely green in this regard, which will provide a major advantage to landlords, businesses, and residents,” says Evans. The lighting choices offer high lumen output and very low power consumption, and the strip lighting, for example, comes with a 5-year warranty.
Having been on site for 18 months, Major Tech has supplied the first 35 floors of the construction and provided contractors and engineers with professional advice and technical support where needed.
The restaurant and its wine cellar, as well as the spa and gym, are complete with linear lighting and automated LEDs, while commercial areas have been fitted with bright LED strips – drawing approximated 9 Watts per metre and providing up to 1 350 lumens per metre in output. Furthermore, all LEDs come with a five-year warranty. This contributes to both the financial and environmental cost savings offered to landlords and residents of The Leonardo.
“With the products, we have selected, The Leonardo’s lighting needs will be met by roughly 10% of the power required by regular incandescent lightbulbs, with far superior quality, longevity and ease of use,” Evans concludes.
