ventilation to keep the building cool in the scorching
summer months. Using this method we built one
formal classroom and one more open pavilion which
had lower, perforated brick walls which will be used as
a covered outside teaching space.
Windows frame the mountains from a number of
viewpoints in the formal classroom, which features a
sliding door offering some privacy away from the other
learning spaces. The pitched roof channels rainfall into
the large gutter and disposes of the water at the rear of
the pavilions, essential for the torrential rainy periods.
Cross-bracing was used to stabilise the structures and a
structural bookcase was fixed in the formal classroom.
This was just one of a number of furniture items we
also made alongside multiple tables and chairs, which
prior to this the school had not possessed.
PROJECT TEAM
In addition to the two classrooms, we also constructed
an informal seating area and a central garden space using sand bags filled with earth and
then rendered. These help to create an enclosed campus with the garden as the centre
point. Another important element to the project was creating play equipment. At the
moment the kids only have old tyres to play with. The students had a separate studio
project to design play equipment and a number of these were made on site including a
sand pit and tyres with bouncy bungee cords. AD
12
ARCHITECTS: Students from the University of Nottingham
LOCATION: Limpopo, South Africa
CLIENT: The Rabonami Ithekgeng Creche
TUTORS: Alison Davies, John Ramsay, Richard Woods,
Lois Woods, Chris Cook, Malcolm Dugdale, Steve Wickham,
Gareth Woods, Ben Tynegate, Matt Cobb, Joe Hollis,
Dominic Blake, Eve Mason
STUDENTS: Alicia Hollis, Anna Helliar, Annette Sibthorp,
Ashleigh Simpson, Avneesh Poonia, Ben Clarke, Charlotte
Grasselli, Dan Paigge, Dayana Anastasova, Jemima AshtonHarris, Julia Radka, Kiran Shah, Matthew Drewitt, Matthew
Marsden, Naimish Thanki, Olivia Redman, Sam Whitehead,
Sammie Mooney, Sara Lohse, Sebastian Chambers, Steban
Morales, Tom Rose, Wesley Stone
africandesignmagazine.com