Stofkinders
Supervisor: Dr Nico Botes
Site: Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape
Client / Stakeholder: Children & Community of Graaff-Reinet
Key Words: Early Childhood Development Centre, Local vernacular, Pattern Language, Karoo vernacular, Adobe & Rammed Earth Technology
Abstract
The project, Stofkinders, focuses on one of the most vulnerable groups in Graaff-Reinet, the children. Translating to “dust children”, Stofkinders refers to how the children of Karoo spend their lives in the dust. They eat, sleep, learn and play in the dust. The town is rife with unemployment, poverty and infrastructural decay. The Karoo is a vast, arid landscape, that symbolises isolation, harshness, and survival struggles. It serves as a powerful backdrop for exploring identity, survival, and human connection to nature. Christopher Alexander’s Nature of Order was used to establish a pattern language in the town.
Graaff Reinet is known as the oldest town in the Eastern Cape province and the 4th oldest town in South Africa, The horseshoe–shaped town is known as the “Gem of the Karoo” and is rich in its history and cultural significance. The chosen site is located along the Eastern end of Somerset Street, right by the local hub of Market Square, where many shopfronts and commercial establishments are found. The informal settlement of Masizakhe is located towards the north of the site, and inhabitants of the community often cut across the site on their way to work.
The design approach is to be simultaneously sensitive to the town’s local vernacular and rich heritage; whilst being unafraid to embrace a new aspect that makes the buildings sustainable and robust over time- to be respectful yet unafraid in its own presence. More sustainable structural technologies are equipped in the form of Adobe brick and rammed earth walls, as well as the use of Glulaminated timber. The programme consists of a multi-use precinct, predominantly serving as an Early Childhood Development Centre, with after-school programs and workshop facilities for adults. Local crafts and trades will be taught for adults as well as teenagers, to aid the community in their development. Cultural events and festivals can be held at the precinct, in conjunction with existing events held in the town. Somerset street will end in a public square for the community, with buildings surrounding the square. The intention is for this area to embrace a new style that erupts from the local vernacular, that is already present in small bursts in the town. On the other end of the site, along Market Square, existing buildings in poor quality will be restored and altered to fit the existing vernacular of the town.
