Skip to content

Audio Version

See more about

More info

Architizer featured project.

Design: collectif saga.

Location: Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Photographs: Joubert Loots.

A partnership between different non-profit organizations

In February, Saga flew to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. There they collaborated with different organizations that already had roots in a local impoverished community, Joe Slovo. These organizations include: Love Story, an NGO that works towards social development in impoverished communities; and Indalo, the brainchild of Alliance Française of Port Elizabeth which aims to use architecture as an agent for social change. The project had already begun and consists of developing four community buildings around an existing nursery school.

Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School

Joe Slovo is located on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth and is known as a township: one of a series of informal areas that were developed during Apartheid to host mostly poor black and colored communities. They are not dense areas and have usually developed rapidly with no real planning. Usually the municipality gives a plot to a family for free and they have free range to build what they like, as long as they respect the property limits. Access to water and electricity is limited, which makes the living conditions harsh.

23

190401

How do we do more with less?

With on average the same budget as an RDP house (houses built by the government) the project tries to show that by building in a different way we can offer the users better, bigger and more flexible spaces. Whereas an RDP house is on average 36m2, the building we erected is 138m2. This was made possible by using mostly recycled materials, which were mostly free or at reduced cost, and by establishing efficient building techniques.

d03

Plan

d01

06

Diagrams

d04d05

Sections

20211817

Under Construction

1011121413

Knowledge sharing

The second goal of the project was to try to develop simple and repeatable processes, which would give the community the tools and knowledge to reproduce these processes for their own development. We decided to use similar materials to what they use for construction (palettes, corrugated sheet metal, tires etc.). Those were then transformed in order to make a durable, solid building with significant architectural value. We also involved a few members of the community throughout the process in order to continuously share this knowledge. It was a two-way knowledge exchange, in the sense that we have a lot to learn from a community that builds and rebuilds every day using limited resources from the surrounding environment.

02030507

Architizer featured project.

Design: collectif saga.

Location: Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Photographs: Joubert Loots.

urbanNext (December 10, 2024) Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School. Retrieved from https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/.
Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School.” urbanNext – December 10, 2024, https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/
urbanNext November 15, 2017 Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School., viewed December 10, 2024,<https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/>
urbanNext – Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School. [Internet]. [Accessed December 10, 2024]. Available from: https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/
Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School.” urbanNext – Accessed December 10, 2024. https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/
Temporary Silindokulhe Pre-School.” urbanNext [Online]. Available: https://urbannext.net/temporary-silindokulhe-pre-school/. [Accessed: December 10, 2024]

urbanNext
urbanNext | expanding architecture to rethink cities and territories

Newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter

Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in excerpt
Formats
Audio&visual
Concept
Data
Essay
Forum
Lecture
Podcast
Project
Talk
Survey
Statement
Selfthink
High Density
Middle Density
Low Density
No Density

talk

essay

project

product

survey

data

all formats