Type of project:
Public utilities

Start of construction:
July 2005

Principal authors:
Andrew Raymond Horn, Flavio Tedeschi, and Anne Marie Moore, architects, ECO Design – Architects & Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa

Comment of the Holcim Awards 2005 Jury for Africa Middle East
The work is highly commended for its systematic approach to addressing the target issues in a non-invasive manner that respects the context in which it is situated. In order to ensure the requisite natural conservation standards necessary for such a site, the authors apply a well-considered balance between a selection of locally available materials and construction technology – with straw bale walls, timber structure and sod-roof as key elements – and new technologies that optimize renewable energy – vacuum-tube collectors for solar water heating as well as PV for low-level appliances and lighting.

Equally significant is the use of composting toilets rather than water-based sewage, thereby providing an opportunity to recycle grey water following its preliminary treatment through a constructed wetland. The possibility to transfer these principles and technologies is highlighted by the fact that critical applications have already been proven effective in a project implemented elsewhere by the design team.

Also important is that the aesthetically subtle and refined solution sponsors broad-based stakeholder participation in the conservation of “biodiversity hotspots,” thereby fostering committed involvement from a wide sector of the community to plan their mutual future.