Timber iQ August - September 2020 // Issue: 50 August - September 2020 | Page 22

LOCAL PROJECT
A systemic approach to
timber in the African context
by Arné Gunter, BIM director, Earthworld Architects
Speaking at the 10th Wood conference in Cape Town, Arné Gunter guided
attendees through his company’s journey on their Future Africa Campus.
Future Africa is a trans-disciplinary collaboration campus
that fosters collective research, fellowship and
collaboration among the vast diversity of cultures and
disciplines on our continent. Future Africa is not only about
place (locality, meaning) nor space (building), but also about
the contribution a building can make to the ecology within
which it is developed.
FACILITIES AND CONTEXT TO DESIGN
The facilities consist of:
• 280 one-, two-, and 3-bedroom living units;
• Four communal living and cooking areas;
• A crèche;
• Dining hall (Future Africa Hub);
• A research commons (administration and library); and
• Conference facility (250-seater auditorium; with two 50-seater
multi-purpose rooms, and six break-away rooms, linked to the
auditorium).
For the purpose of this article we will focus predominantly on the
Hub, housing units and conference centre, and our process of
building with timber.
Firstly, let’s contextualise our approach. In the past the building process
was simplistic, there was a sense of comradery and fellowship, spaces
were created through simple processes and good craftmanship.
We used to create by hand, understood our materiality and most
importantly work in community – working as a system – something
industrialisation has taken away from the sense of making. This idea
is something we tried to capture, this process of ‘making’, of
‘understanding’ and ‘fellowship’. Bringing back that sense of the
vernacular in the building process.
Now, what does that mean in the African context? Our
exploration of this process led us to discover the latent potential
of local micro systems. Where there was a sense of the
vernacular. This idea of community-based or unskilled labour
systems; people being the pivotal point in the system. So why not
take this mindset; build a system by combining high-level design
with local resources and skills.
We drew inspiration from old systems and tools, where people were
key to the success. We then combined that with the new technologies
of today. What this allowed us to do is to disentangle the building
which led to the concept of a parallel off-site manufacture and on-site
assembly approach.
This meant we could work to extreme precision whilst streamlining
the productivity through the use of various building information
modelling (BIM) technologies. What this allowed us to do is exchange
information between the different disciplines and collaborate more
efficiently and with better understanding.
Manufacture of the
various components for
installation at the Hub.
ALL IMAGES BY EARTHWORLD ARCHITECTS
20 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2020 // www.timberiq.co.za