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Stage: University Project

Tools / Skills: Model Making, AutoCAD, SketchUP, Sketching

Awards: Best Community Project in 4th Year

Time: 2004

The Cape Peninsula University of Technology was approached by a “green” organisation called Tsoga (Xhosa for “wake up”) to design an “environmental center” in Langa. Langa is an underdeveloped and poor community with an urban fabric mainly consisting of informal and underdeveloped public spaces, infra structure and shack housing. The building should house space for collecting, recycling and packaging (for transport) waste. Also, the building have to accommodate space for education and recreation purposes. The site forms part of an open square which latches itself onto an urban design development program focused on providing better housing and public spaces. This proposal explores several key conceptual drivers to only ensure functional outcome that contributes to the urban Realm, creates meaningful architecture that is not only sustainable in the way it is constructed, but also in the way in which it contributes to the Langa community.

Statement of intent: ITS ALL ABOUT THE TREES - New intervention to merge with its urban and natural landscape, and celebrate immediate Public Square with collection of magnificently mature Eucalyptus trees. Trees are an oasis of green gathering space and in a desert underdeveloped urban realm. Fusing the role and by-product of recycling with the community’s everyday life will contribute to making it part of their life style.

Design approach: INTEGRATION WITH PUBLIC REALM - The public square and pavement on Oliver Thambo Drive are the spaces that will contribute the most to making the building work as a public building. Working within the existing urban framework, playing with implied and existing rhythms, existing trees and geometries and creating a space that would announce the square will ensure successful integration and interaction with public realm. Furthermore, integration with people and their way of life will ensure that this building don’t become another ill-fated intervention in the landscape.

Design Strategies:

Context - The existing urban fabric is an agglomeration of multi coloured shack boxes with broken mono pitch roofs. Although formalized and rationalized, this intervention draws inspiration from its context allowing public association and improving the potential of future growth.

Contain - Apart from interacting, the building must also define. It does this by containing the public space between itself and design height determining trees.

Anticipation - Wall planes on Oliver Thambo Drive decreases in size and slowly reveals activity on the square and around the trees upon approach.

Directionality - Construction emphasises the existence of trees. Steel roof construction and directionality of the walls focuses on the trees.

Transition - Urban landscape filters into the building by picking up rhythms and patterns from the existing hard landscaping and incorporating it into the intervention.

Edges - All of the edges of this intervention is sympathetic and promotes public interaction by means of reduced building mass towards existing built fabric, collection points on Oliver Thambo Drive, shade creating and interactive promenade, and free and unprescribed interaction with square

Ownership - Ownership is one of the most important elements of any public intervention - this intervention has various opportunities for public to make a bit of the building their own - whether it be trading, interacting or resting.

Sustainability / Growth - With existing informal communities growing rapidly on a daily basis, the initial brief of most public buildings are soon out lived. This proposal is to be build with local building materials on a design that accommodates future expansion.