The Maboneng Precinct is one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the southern hemisphere, created by visionary property developer Jonathan Liebmann, and designed by Daffonchio and Associates Architects. Maboneng is an open, mixed-use neighbourhood located on the eastern side of the Johannesburg CBD.

In a still economically fragmented and racially divided Johannesburg, the developer's vision for Maboneng is to create an innovative urban environment to encourage diversity in terms of uses, races, incomes and ages.

The developer's  focus is to transform entire neighbourhoods by designing and developing iconic properties and employing innovative strategies that create integrated and uplifted urban environments.

Maboneng is an urban proposal resulting from both global inspiration and local innovation. For example, the retail spaces are dedicated to small unique concepts, franchise chains are not considered and artisans are included in the projects supply chain and encouraged to start small business ventures.

The architecture re-establishes the dialogue between buildings and the streetscape, creating opportunities for engagement between the private and public realm. This is particularly meaningful in the post-apartheid context and anti-urban legacy of Johannesburg.

Maboneng, a Sotho word meaning “place of light”, is a fitting name for a district that has fast become a centre of creative energy for Johannesburg’s urban artists. With a mix of art galleries, and retail and studio space on offer, the precinct draws the inner-city public, as well as the chic, art-going crowd of the city’s northern suburbs, bringing life back into downtown Johannesburg.

World Architecture Festival Finalist 2011

GIFA Award of Merit 2015

SAIA Award for Sustainable Architecture 2016

Three exemplary real estate projects from across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region were announced as equal recipients of the inaugural 2020 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence. The winners, each of which demonstrate a comprehensive level of quality and a forward-looking approach to development and design, include two projects in The Netherlands and one in South Africa; Victoria Yards by Daffonchio Architects.

Victoria Yards required a unique approach: we understood that this was a social responsibility and regeneration project as opposed to one of our high-end architectural endeavours. We approached the problem by its first principles: we looked at structuring our service in a way that it could be affordable for the project and so created an essential toolkit of architectural and structural information, rather than trying to impose a full professional service. Our first step was to set out a masterplan, for what was quite a large site of several hectares.

Then we set out a series of typical details on how to treat for example the walls that were damaged, how to treat openings, how to conceal the new plumbing, to do the signage and roads, the landscaping, etc. rather than completing a full architectural plan for the precinct which was a bit too expensive for the undertaking.

Each detail was then considered so that while being inexpensive, it would consistently create an aesthetic language of contrast between contemporary and historical architectural elements.
This allowed the developer to have a general overarching vision of the precinct and then phase in the various pockets of development as he found tenants and uses for the multitude of spaces- this meant he was able to develop pockets organically and using the vocabulary of the items we gave him to work with, in terms of technical, aesthetic, contemporary and civil engineering detailing for all the roads and other architectonics.

He then set up an on-site architectural drafting office and adapted our blueprinting to the different sections of the development as it grew.
The principle was to retain as much as possible of the existing character of the buildings, the texture of the old walls, and the rawness of the space - even certain buildings without roofs to find different uses for them, for example repurposing them into greenhouses, and really to maintain the extraordinary character of the lot which is one of the oldest industrial sites in Johannesburg.

So a lot of the original character is maintained and the main impact aesthetically that greets a visitor to the Yards is the landscaping- the amount of mass planting, urban farming, and very basic but beautiful well-considered water features throughout this architectural ecosystem in Johannesburg's inner city.

Every single piece of ground is organically cultivated with something, mostly with edible plants that are grown and used on-site or sold to visitors, and these green spaces are lush with a variety of medicinal herbs used as companion plants and also to attract beneficial insects.
Today Victoria Yards is an integrated urban complex interspersed with green spaces that is as much about social development as it is a commercial enterprise.

2020 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence Winner

Project Architect: Enrico Daffonchio

A proposal for the rejuvenation of a public square in the centre of Tortona, a city adjacent to Milan.

The project comprises a public park, clinic and parking.

The undulating design takes its inspiration from the vineyard covered hills that surround the town.

The site is located on the south bank of the Thames River and close to the Tower Bridge. It is well connected to public transportation and has great views of the Shard and Swiss Re.

This area has undergone many changes in the last 20 years; what was previously a depressed area has become the site of the development of new cultural industries. Norman Foster developed a master plan which includes the construction of offices, luxury hotels, restaurants, gyms, and the city council. The location of the London Public Library emerged as a natural complement to Foster´s master plan. 

The brief called for the library to be inserted as a continuity to the master plan. There was no restriction set for the height of the building, but proposals had to retain 100% of the green footprint of the site, thereby ensuring generous outdoor public space. 

A large scale urban regeneration proposal in the Cape Flats region to re-develop an old silica mine into a regenerative, sustainable & smart urban precinct, in order to connect & activate the historically disadvantaged and separated surrounding areas.

Wandsworth is located in south London across the Thames from Chelsea and Kensington and neighbouring Putney and Richmond. It was identified in the London Plan, a spatial development strategy, as one of the major centres of Greater London. 

Our high-level proposal for the urban regeneration of Wandsworth proposes the upgrade of the existing under-utilized green areas in and around King George's Park, and aims to maximise real estate values through commercial and residential developments. 

This was a proposal done for Standard Bank, who owned the site at the time, in an attempt to prevent the demolition of the historical Ussher industrial buildings in between Standard Bank and the M3 in the Johannesburg CBD. Our plan envisaged the preservation and re-purposing of 1,700 square meters of historical industrial buildings and 33,000 square meters of new high density residential.