The Mutual Building - Historic Art Deco in Cape Town
The Mutual Building was initially the headquarters for OLD MUTUAL, the large insurance and financial services company and is a fine example of art deco architecture and design located in Cape Town City Centre
Today it has now been converted for residential use and is a very popular option for investors and young professionals looking to be in the hub of the action of the city centre.
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the city of Cape Town
The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the front of the building.
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman".
