Baredna, Cape Town

This is a very interesting block of flats in Cape Town and not only beacuse of the name, Baredna. Is it Bar-Edna, Ba-Red-na or even Bare-DNA? No doubt the architect, Alexander Stewart Cruickshank, could tell us what the name meant when the flats were built in 1939.

Now let's look at some of the features of the buildng. Firstly, they are asymetrical because of the corner site allowing Cruickshank to place the place the windows cutting through the near-corner of the building.

Then we can see that the curved balconies on either side of the central tower were once open but now only one on the upper two floors remains so.

The tower has two squared columns running up the section of glass bricks with three crossbands near the roofline.

Interestingly the name is not rendered on the central tower but on the right section of the building between the conventional residential windows.

Finally, a glimpse of some of the attention to detail with this little railing in the stairwell.

Reference:
Baredna Flat, Artefacts.com.za