The first student project of this kind to be realized goes back to an initiative of the Institute for Architecture and Design of the University of Technology, Vienna, in 2003, when it adopted into its teaching programme the extension of the Masibambane Primary School and the construction of a new day-care centre for the disabled. Not least on the strength of these two successfully completed projects, the public welfare association Socially Sustainable Architecture (S2ARCH) was founded in 2004. The main goals of this organization are the development, coordination and promotion of building projects for the socially deprived in collaboration with students from European educational establishments and in close cooperation with other bodies.
Opened in 2006, the Emmanuel Day-Care centre (ill. 1) marks the fourth new building the Vienna Institute for Architecture and Design has been able to realize in Orange Farm. Within the past four years, S2ARCH has cre-ated seven further aid projects there with architectural students from other universities.
Initial lectures are followed by design workshops, and finally by the journey to Johannesburg, where the schemes are built jointly with local inhabitants in a period of 1–2 months.
In Orange Farm, kindergartens are open on workdays from morning to evening and contain groups of children of different ages. In a township like this, architecture can be a great help in creating a sense of identity. Children need a creative environment for a chance to escape from the cycle of segregation, unemployment, poverty, crime and Aids. Although the student projects always comprise special low-budget solutions, they reveal a great breadth in terms of the general concept and design. Some kindergartens are scarcely any different from comparable modern buildings in Europe; others are more restrained in their design and acknowledge local building traditions and visual expectations. The decisive factor in Orange Farm is not the final architectural form, but the process of inception and realization. In the Olifantsvlei Preschool (ills. 6–8), for example, designed at the Institute for Experimental Architecture of the University of Innsbruck, a large proportion of the building components were prefabricated by the main sponsor, Hoesch Bausysteme (an Austrian construction-systems company), and flown to Johannesburg. A different strategy was pursued at the University of Art in Linz for the Tebogo home for disabled children (ill. 2). Here, the students concentrated largely on the use of locally available resources and an ongoing development of traditional production methods. Only the load-bearing structure is in relatively expensive timber. In contrast, the walls were made of locally worked earth with woven tufts of grass. Built by 23 students from Linz together with resident construction workers and completed in 2005, the kindergarten was awarded the Energy Globe’s prize for youth in the European Parliament last year as the “first passive solar-energy building in South Africa”.
Creating a structure that is fully self-sufficient in terms of energy throughout the year was a central aspect of the latest kindergarten project in Orange Farm, which opened in September 2007: the Khanyisani Preschool (ills. 3–5), built by architectural students from the University of Technology, Munich. The rooms, grouped in three compact volumes with forecourt areas, are set beneath a gently sloping roof that provides protection from both sunshine and heavy rain in summer. Large windows in the north faces ensure solar gains through direct insolation especially in winter. The students were concerned with investigating economical forms of construction that could be applied in the future. For example, the load-bearing capacity of the locally manufactured breeze blocks was considerably increased by adding a little extra cement.
In the context of sustainable architecture, account was also taken of the new social infrastructure in Orange Farm; for ultimately, projects of this kind contain a ray of hope for a “better world” in townships where almost everything is lacking. Certainly one of the most important goals is to help the inhabitants find a place in that better world. Initiatives of this kind may also help to raise the level of social awareness and the sense of responsibility of future architects.
