In recognition of architectural, spatial and community-enhancing achievements, the City of Cape Town recently received a prestigious architectural award.
PROJECTS
Langa square is tops for housing and design
In recognition of architectural, spatial and community-enhancing achievements, the City of Cape Town recently received a prestigious architectural award.
By The City of Cape Town | All images courtesy City of Cape Town
Hamilton Naki Square in Langa, one of the City of Cape Town’ s Community Residential Unit( CRU) projects, was recently recognised by the Cape Institute for Architecture and awarded the 2017 Cape Institute for Architecture Award for Architecture.
According to the City of Cape Town, this underpins its commitment to providing well-located housing opportunities and helping to ensure safer communities through urban design, while creating jobs.
QUALITY HOUSING FOR THE COMMUNITY
This CRU project offers housing opportunities to 463 tenants and their families. The planning and construction of the units was managed by the City’ s Transport and Urban Development Authority, with the design expertise of Architects Associated, in consultation with the City’ s Assets and Facilities Management Directorate.
The project cost about R170-million and comprises 463 two-bedroom 40m ² units in three-, four- and fivestorey buildings. These rental housing opportunities are aimed at people residing in the worst hostel conditions in the city, following the development of a priority model for all hostels in Cape Town.
To provide the buildings with a sense of identity, the architects used the gradation of the buildings as well as the staircases, balconies and vistas to create a unique look.
In addition, the precinct’ s layout boasts a network of pedestrian routes, courts and play areas, a new public square on the corner of Bhunga Avenue and Ndabeni Street, as well as pockets of parking and allocated green spaces.
Walkways and narrower streets have been created in the precinct to provide tenants with a thermal buffer and shading against the harsh south-easterly wind and sand and horizontal north-west rain.
GETTING IT RIGHT
“ This project showcases the value of City departments and private companies working together to improve the living conditions of our tenants and their families. The teams who worked on this project should be commended for their creativity and determination. They did not allow the challenges of the sandy Cape soil to deter the construction. Instead, they used innovatively-designed foundations and
This CRU project offers housing opportunities to people residing in the worst hostel conditions.
a load-bearing system of reinforced concrete blocks for the construction of the four- to five-storey buildings. Also, the ecological footprint of this building is reduced by excluding reinforced concrete structural frames.
“ Over the 20-month period of construction, this project created employment opportunities for local labour and subcontractors, through the main contractor,” says the City’ s Mayoral Committee member for Transport and Urban Development, Councillor Brett Herron.
The rentals are managed by the City’ s Assets and Facilities Management Directorate.“ We are proud that our tenants and their families can enjoy affordable rental accommodation. In going green, all our units are connected to solar water heaters which offers our tenants some financial relief as the demand for energy and its cost decreases.
“ The maintenance of the City’ s rental stock usually forms a large part of our budget and therefore I am pleased that careful consideration is given to creating the robust architecture to reduce the level of maintenance required in future. In this way, the budget can be spent on other needs to benefit our tenants and their families,” says the City’ s Mayoral Committee member for Assets and Facilities Management, Councillor Stuart Diamond.
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JANUARY- FEBRUARY 2018
AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING