Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Volkskas Bank - now ABSA Bonnievale, Western Cape Gabriël Theron (Gawie) FAGAN: Design Architect VOLKSKAS ARCHITECTS: Architect

Date: 1962 Type: Bank Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°56'25.82" S 20°05'58.93" E Alt: 120m

One of the banks (also, those of Brandfort, Warden and Warrenton) based on a 'type' plan developed for the Ladybrand example by Gawie Fagan as in-house architect to Volkskas. Fagan here, as he employed in Brandford, Leeudoringstad, Steynsrus, Warden, Warmbaths and Warrenton came up with the most ingenious solution to the problem [of the Apartheid requirement for separate entrances] by using a single large door, hinged on a central pivot. The door could be swung open to create two unequally sized entrances, each barricaded from the other by the massive expanse of the door itself, while the same bank clerks moved back and forth between the two sides. With appropriate modernist tools, even the problems of 'petty apartheid' could be solved in new and inventive ways. (Silverman, 1998: 140). Books that reference Volkskas Bank - now ABSA Judin, Hilton & Vladislavic, Ivan (editors). 1998. blank______ Architecture, apartheid and after. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. pg 139, 140