Cactusland was commissioned by a small company that grew cactus plants and wanted a warehouse and distribution point with a small office component from where they could repackage and distribute their plants. Furthermore the building was to be flexible to changeover a period of time. The extremely visible corner site was a great opportunity for a distinctive building. The cactus plants provided the metaphorical starting point for an architectural exploration. The image of the building was important in a tough urban context dominated by large scale buildings – the Alhambra Theatre to the north and Witwatersrand Technical College to the east across a busy 4 lane road. Essentially the building is a steel framed shed – a box, manipulated in terms of wall elements and floating roof structure to create an expressive landmark building. The corner of Beit and Sivewright Streets is where an expressive curved thick wall with punched windows, allowing display of special plants is located. The roof tips up over this part of the building and floats over the wall as the space between the wall and the roof is closed with clear glazing. The Beit Street façade is an exploration of façade framing openings for display of plants. Internally, it was designed to be flexible for subdivision and to the possible addition of mezzanine decks.