Design architect, Francois Du Toit was expertly backed by Safintra and Safal Steel and together they worked tirelessly to ensure that the bespoke aesthetic was achieved at a mega scale industrial park for logistics giant, DSV. This includes a bespoke colour paint system used on the roofing and cladding steel.

This new facility, located along the northbound side of the N2 and within the Solar City site in the Cape Town International Airport industrial park zone, consolidates DSV’s six diverse operations into a single distribution park, boasting the latest security, warehousing and other logistics technologies.

At 50 000m² coverage under roof, extensive use was made of Safal Steel Colorplus® AZ150 in colour Seaspray Matt TCT 0.53mm. The project is a worthy showcase of the use of coated steel roofing and cladding, where its usage is spread across not only the main warehouses but also the services buildings also.

The Colorplus® pre-painted steel roofing material was formed into the popular Saflok 410® (for the roof) and Widedek® profile for the vertical cladding by Safintra and installed by Premier Roofing, Cape Town.

The architect required Safal Steel to engineer a company-first off organic metallic paint finish with a unique colour palette. Significantly, this case study also showcases the use of Matt coating technology in a large scale commercial  project. Hence, for the cladding, Colorplus®  Thunderstorm Matt, was banded with custom-designed Colorplus® ‘Metallic White Aluminium finish’ AZ150, yielding a pleasing stunning from an optical viewpoint, as illustrated by the photos taken on site at the largest warehouse in the new campus.

The project made extensive use of structural steel in the floor slabs, foundations, in-situ columns, precast columns and precast panels, in addition to the large quantity of AZ150 roof sheeting and cladding.

Inside the buildings, however, innovative use of Colorplus® has been made in other engineering applications.

Inside the larger warehousing: in support of the building fire/smoke passive control system. It is widely held that smoke potentially causes more damage and risk to human life than the actual flames. Hence the fire control design makes use of Colorplus® vertical barriers under the roofing, where, fixed to the long span trusses, it provides fire and smoke compartmentalisation barrier directly under the roof. This serves to retain the early-stage smoke rising from a warehouse fire into professionally designated zones or reservoirs thereby controlling its rapid spread. It is widely held that smoke potentially causes more damage and also risk to human life than the actual flames themselves.

Inside the buildings, however, innovative use of Colorplus® has been made in other engineering applications.

Inside the larger warehousing: in support of the building fire/smoke passive control system. It is widely held that smoke potentially causes more damage and risk to human life than the actual flames. Hence the fire control design makes use of Colorplus® vertical barriers under the roofing, where, fixed to the long span trusses, it provides fire and smoke compartmentalisation barrier directly under the roof. This serves to retain the early-stage smoke rising from a warehouse fire into professionally designated zones or reservoirs thereby controlling its rapid spread. It is widely held that smoke potentially causes more damage and also risk to human life than the actual flames themselves

Safal Steel quality manager, Errol Govender comments that: “The bespoke colour system used in the Colorplus® required on the DSV project was one of the best systems I have ever worked with. The finished was immaculate, from the beginning to the end”.

Innovative pigments used in the paint have been carefully selected to avoid rapid colour change and retain a fresh appearance for many years. The technology used for this coating system also limits chalking. Particle resistance is an important factor with the growing increase in windborne contaminants and dust. Advances in pre-painted coating technology means that our modified polyesters resist dirt, ensuring your building stays cleaner for longer. With its balance between cost and quality, UV resistance and corrosion resistance, hardness and flexibility, Colorplus ® is redefining the pre­ painted coated steel sector.

The one unique feature of every Colorplus® roofing color is that it is unique. However, there is a ready understanding between the RAL colour as specified and its Colorplus® equivalent.

RAL codes are a European colour matching system defined colors for paints, coatings and plastics, they are reasonably unique and can therefore differ from the Colorplus® range. However, RAL codes can sometimes be used to specify colour by a designer, so Safal Steel has devised a system that compares the designer’s requested RAL to the closest Colorplus® colour.

Speak to your Safal Steel representative for further information and note that bespoke colours can be an option for a qualifying project.

Safal Steel warrants its Zincal® and Colorplus® (colour coated steel) to have a service life (prior to perforation by weathering in the natural elements) from date of installation. Warranty periods are determined by Safal Steel and may vary according to project design and location. A Provisional Warranty may be applied for at project design stage; this warranty serves as a guideline as to the final warranty Safal Steel may issue on project completion. A Final Warranty application form may be submitted to Safal Steel by the roll former on project completion, requesting Safal Steel to issue a warranty for the specific material used on a specific project.

Look for the trademark. All Safal Steel prime material is branded on the backing coat – insist on Safal Steel material.

Client/tenant: DSV
Project architect: Francois Du Toit Architects
Project manager: Berg Partnerships,,
Engineers: Converge Consulting, DC Electrical, Superstruct
Quantity Surveyors: Quest Cost Consulting and CHS Quantity Surveyors
Main contactor: Stabilid Construction (Cape)
Developer: Quenet Corporate Property,
Roofing Contractor: Premier Roofing.
Roofing & Cladding Material Supplier: Safal Steel
Roll former: Safintra.
Site photography: Gareth Griffiths Imaging