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PRO J EC T #3 SO L PL A ATJ E
Humble and hardworking The new Teaching Practice Building for the School of Education at Sol Plaatje University, by URBA Architects & Urban Designers, makes a beautifully crafted and contextually appropriate contribution to the campus and the city beyond.
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he new Education Building at Sol Plaatje University. which was awarded a SAIA regional award, is set within a coded envelope as dictated by a robust urban design framework for the wider campus. It forms part of a family of buildings that work in concert to define a range of public spaces and movement routes that extend well beyond the site and into greater Kimberley. The legacy opportunities lie in the collective rather than the individual. Because of its specific location, the building is consciously quiet in its expression and recognises its primary role as a background building and responsible neighbour towards both the abutting public spaces and surrounding buildings. Given these facts, it is not possible to read the building as an object in isolation, detached from its evolving context. The urban design effort and the client’s consistency in realising an integrated vision should be recognised as the most significant ingredients towards leaving a meaningful legacy. “Throughout the competition and construction phases, our aim has been to value inclusivity through a ‘responsive’ approach,” says Henri Comrie. This includes the development of climatic, cultural and place-making responses, which were aided by the original competition brief. The focus offered this competition prioritised
collective content over individual form, particularly since such content was taken seriously by a jury that values urban design. This was never going to be the place to showboat in a glossy way. “This has provided us with much joy in quietly delivering this building without the usual calls for bells and whistles that dogs commercial practice,” says Comrie. SOLID AND VOID
The building is stereotomic in its conception and relies on solid brick mass to mitigate the severe climatic conditions. In this specific building, which is orientated north-south, heat conditions are compounded by
32 LEADINGARCHITECTURE & DESIGN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
extensive east- and west-facing façades that justify the thickening of walls. Externally the four-storey, cubist volume as inherited from the urban design framework was moulded and sculpted not only in relation to the functional programme, but to dynamic variables such as pedestrian movement routes, optimal light ingress and legibility concerns. A combination of these responses provided opportunities for honest design expression within the uncluttered brick envelope as architecture parlante, or an architecture that speaks. Continued next page
Above: The solid brick mass on the east- and west-facing façades mitigate against extreme heat. Right: The four-storey cubist volume was moulded in relation to the functional programme as well as to dynamic variables such as pedestrian movement routes and light ingress.
