A new McDonald’s restaurant opened in Goodwood, in Parrow, in the Western Cape, last month. The 132-seater restaurant, café and drive-through was built in 105 days and uses 20% less electricity and water than conventional designs, says McDonald’s South Africa MD Greg Solomon.

The restaurant is a new design that uses a light-steel frame and a composite wall structure, which is layered and contains cavities to improve insulation.

“Our goal was to reduce construction costs by 20%, construction time by 20%, electricity use by 20% and water use by 20%. We will have more concrete findings by August, but preliminary results from our engineers indicate that we have reduced construction costs by 15% and are on target to reach 20%, as well as having reduced construction time by 28%, from 146 days on average to 105 days.”

The walls comprise a thermal break layer attached to the 90 mm light-steel frames, followed by a Tyvek moisture membrane and then a 5 mm fibre cement-clad board that is plastered and painted. There is a 15 mm one-hour- rated firewall layer and another cement-clad board on the interior that is plastered and tiled.

The insulating layers reduce the building’s energy requirements for heating and cooling, with tests on the building’s energy demands indicating that it has achieved a 17% to 20% improvement in energy efficiency, compared with those of conventional designs. However, the final determination of the building’s energy efficiency will take place only after two months of operation.

The new design of the building required the company’s engineers and construction staff to iron out details of the new construction method, but Solomon notes that the tolerances between design and construction were very close.

McDonald’s South Africa should be able to improve on all facets of construction when building new restaurants using this new design and these materials, he says.

The roof of the building was erected within 20 days of construction, enabling the installation of interior systems, such as air conditioning and wiring, to be carried out simultaneously with other construction activities, he adds.

“The building has a 50-year material warranty and its modular and flexible design enables us to change the interior when required by customer demand.”

The landscaping around the building comprises indigenous plants, which require less water and are low maintenance.

“The new building design and construction materials are a significant success for McDonald’s South Africa and [will assist us] in reaching our goal to cut costs by 20% . They will also assist with our expansion plans as we as reduce our impact on the environment.”

The restaurant will employ 75 people permanently and Solomon mentions that the building meets the local municipality’s green advisory council’s approvals for environment-friendly construction.

The Goodwood restaurant was the 180th McDonald’s restaurant built in South Africa and the next McDonald’s light-steel frame restaurant will be built in Pretoria, Gauteng, he concludes.