“Responsive approach to providing mixed-use development” – Holcim Awards Jury
The project is credited for its responsive approach to providing mixed-use development to accommodate the re-settlement of households displaced by the process of a slum settlement upgrade. Notable interventions of the project are the strategy of multi-level walk-ups to encourage density and efficiency, creative land-use, the harnessing of renewable energy, as well as the provisions proposed for water conservation.
Last updated: July 21, 2005 Johannesburg, South Africa
Of equal merit is the clustering of external spaces – especially for security and maintenance purposes as well as micro-climatic control – and the reticulation for a grey-water recycling system. Also commended is the ethical stance reflected in the concern for community cohesion as treated, for example, through the use of pedestrian walkways.
Also admirable is the possibility for local employment during the construction process. This signals sensitivity to the issue of the need to empower indigenous residents and instill a sense of communal belonging. An ecological awareness is expressed with the use of locally available materials for construction – i.e., hollow port slab blocks cast on site, fired bricks, iron sheets – as well as in the considerations for the utilization of recycled and waste materials. Overall, the project is as convincing as is its ambition.