“The project incorporates a series of
features that promote the concept of
sustainability beyond the common
understanding of the term. The jury
greatly valued the role of the university
as a critical player in advancing the
constructive framework of the city,
engaging a series of stakeholders – city
officials, local inhabitants, craftsmen,
etc. – in the very formation of the urban
habitat. While the project offers strategies
for formalizing the informal, at the same
time it learns from local construction
practices and social customs to produce a
new form of urban vernacular – a strategy
that essentially informalizes the formal.”
– Holcim Awards Jury
52
africandesignmagazine.com