Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika , University of Cape Town
OVERALL WINNER | INNOVATIVE AWARD | SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
The Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika , at the University of Cape Town ( UCT ), is the third Design Thinking institute in the world . It joins the well-established Institutes at Stanford University and at Potsdam University and is the only school in Africa dedicated to Design Thinking training .
The aspirations for the new building were progressive and visionary . The new d-school was to become a destination , to be synonymous with teaching our future generation the mindset and practice of innovation , designled and creative thinking . Aligned to this vision was the requirement for the building to achieve a GBCSA 6 Star Green Star Public & Education Building certification .
The small site on which the d-school is built is triangular , with the hypotenuse of the triangle radiused ,
shaped by an existing road lined with an avenue of beautiful Cork Oaks . The buildings service spine tracks this radius , forming the southern side of the triangular building . The large span orthogonal studios are provided to the north and west , forming the other two sides of the triangular . This planning approach pushes all the geometrical complexity of the site into the centre of the triangle , the Us space , encompassing the atrium and courtyard .
This was resolved architecturally and structurally through a singular free-form lattice shell glass and steel roof . The form of the lattice shell was derived by abstracting the sites geometry and topography and encompassing the existing footpath which follows the
66 SAPOA Awards