RISING STAR PRIMARY SCHOOL IN HOPLEY SHINES BRIGHTLY

Residents of Hopley Farm – parents, caregivers, teachers and children – all have an exciting reason to celebrate as the Rising Star Primary School was officially opened at the end of March. It’s been a lengthy journey but the results are spectacular.

Hopley Farm settlement is situated on the southern edge of Harare. It was established as an informal settlement in 2005 following the government clean-up programme, Murambatsvina, and currently has a population of around 200,000. It was initially meant to offer temporary accommodation for those displaced by the clean-up programme but has become a permanent settlement – albeit largely informal. The area has very few services or facilities – in fact most of the settlement has no running water or electricity. In 2010 a group of residents – parents and teachers – set up Rising Star Primary School for the local children, many of whom were not receiving any kind of education. Originally classes were held outdoors or set up in a number of private houses which have since been demolished to make way for the new school. City of Harare allocated the current site for the development of the new educational facility. designed the school as part of her Diploma programme at the University of Stuttgart but it has since become an ongoing project that she’s deeply committed to – in fact for a large part of the project Egbers has been working and consulting on a voluntary basis while living close to the school with a family in Hopley.

Construction of the new school started in 2016 and the official opening was held on 31st March this year, so it’s been a long process. The classrooms and the administration offices were built in stages as funds and resources became available with the first structure consisting of two classrooms and a covered open space.

Two classrooms have been constructed each year and the school now consists of 14 classrooms –two classrooms each for Grades 1 to 7, as well as 6 classrooms for the ECD section. It now provides classrooms for around 900 children. About 25% of the children are orphans and live with relatives or friends who cannot always provide adequate access for schooling. Fees at Rising Star are very affordable and some children are admitted free of charge.

It also serves as a community centre for church services and other social activities so the structure has become an important focus for the surrounding residents. It’s given the community a sense of pride and accomplishment and a more positive outlook for the future.

The design is deceptively simple and once the first classroom block was built the other classrooms followed the same pattern. Large 6 metre masonry arches form the walls of the classrooms and the main structure. The arches have been bricked in to enclose the individual rooms – with one of the closed arches painted

The classrooms are set out in groups of two rooms with a free space in between each cluster. The free space is flexible and can be used as extra teaching space or for other school activities. The schoolrooms are set out in a roughly rectangular shape with a central courtyard for assemblies and play space. Three side of the rectangle are single storey with the fourth side is double storey. It includes the main entrance with staircases each side leading up to the six administration offices on the first floor.

Although the front façade is quite imposing the structure nestles into the site with fields and other houses around. It’s been built of fired clay bricks with an IBR roof – materials that are commonly used in the construction of the surrounding homes.

The school was designed by Kristina Egbers from studio*k based in Germany and developed in conjunction with Engineers Without Borders Germany and the Vision and Hope Foundation, with funding from various other NGOs and private donors. (In Germany Architects are sometimes referred to as Engineers which can be a bit confusing.) Egbers black to function as a class blackboard. Smaller two metre arches form the corridors which run around the central courtyard. The arches are built using timber formwork which can be used over and over to ensure that the openings are all exactly the same shape and size. The arches also mean that there’s no need to cast lintels on site and the structure itself is very robust. All the brickwork inside and outside has been left unplastered and unpainted and finishes have been kept to a minimum for budget reasons, functionality, low maintenance and aesthetic appeal.

Even a lot of the school furniture is made on site. The project lead carpenter Maxwell Mutasa and interior architect Carina Waiblinger (from the German project group) have designed the unique Hopley chair which is easy to assemble and durable and is currently used for the ECD classrooms and for Grades 1 and 2.

The roof is IBR sheeting fixed on timber cross beams. About a metre below the roof is a simple ceiling of unpainted plywood to provide insulation and help to keep the classrooms cool on the hottest days. Small openings in the outside walls and the walls facing the courtyard allow for air to circulate freely and keep the classroom temperature comfortable.

Before construction started soil test were done – the soil is partially waterlogged in the rainy season, so two metre deep, steel reinforced foundations were needed to stabilise the buildings. The floor slab is nonstructural so it was only necessary to make the slab about 15cms thick. The classroom floors are skimmed cement polished with Cobra wax. The floors on the first floor are timber with red gum decking used on the outside corridor.

The palette of materials throughout has been carefully considered and kept very modest. It’s mostly bricks, timber, glass and steel. The simple clay fired bricks were delivered by the manufacturers (Willdale Bricks and Beta Bricks) while most of the other materials

The construction crew was headed by the site foreman Blessing Katambarare and his assistant Talent Rupiya. There were also skilled bricklayers, carpenters and welders on site each with two assistants. There were a maximum of 20 workers on site at any time so the construction team was quite small. Most of the labour force was drawn from Hopley and the surrounding

There’s no electricity at the school but the roofs have been built so that they’re strong enough to support solar panels – a future development project.

The school is run by the Headmaster Mr Tabeni, the Principal Mr Kazembe and the Vice Principal Ms Makoni. There are currently 20 teachers and 11 nonteaching staff most of whom also live in the Hopley area.

The design of the school has won a number of awards including the Max 40 Award from the BDA Association of German Architects. This is a prize that is given every 5 years to young architects under 40 years of age. The Rising Star School received an award at the Balthasar Neumann Preis 2021, as well as the BEST OF BEST award at the Iconic Awards 2020: Innovative Architecture. It was one of four projects on the shortlist in the category Buildings Abroad at the DAM Prize for Architecture in Germany 2021.

It was nominated for the Brick Award 20 Outstanding International Brick Architecture in the category Building outside the Box and was the overall winner of the Heinze were sourced locally in Hopley or Mbare as needed. Lengths of steel were purchased and window frames were manufactured on site. There are windows on both sides of the classrooms to allow for cross ventilation and loads of natural light. The school has no electricity so the classrooms rely solely on natural light and can only be used during daylight hours. area providing employment, training and experience, and an income for the community.

There’s no council water supply at the school although there is a hand pump as well as a borehole. The borehole has been walled in a circular brick structure to protect it and there’s an arched opening to enter the space.

ArchitektenAWARD 2019 – among many other accolades.

Kristina Egbers is founder of Berlin-based practice studio*k.

“Building in unfamiliar places –near or far – means immersing in something new, informing about and understanding the context. Not only in relation to questions that are obviously relevant to construction, but also to the attitudes towards life of the people who work and live there, as well as to historical moments and influences. Locally adapted and planned to the needs of residents and users, built with locally available materials, new structures are created and developed in a collaborative design and construction process. Cultural backgrounds of place and people, details such as the arrangement of a single brick or the joint of two wooden profiles influence the design process and the shape and proportions of the planned structures. The charm is to use existing standards, rethink and convert them into individual solutions for connections –between people and materials.”

The IAZ Annual Conference

2023 was held on Friday 31st March at Manna Resorts in Glen Lorne, Harare. It was a stimulating and very informative event with the Guest of Honour being the Minister of Housing and Social Amenities, the Honourable Minister Daniel Garwe.

Minister Garwe addressed the conference speaking on the government’s commitment to urban regeneration and renewal in line with the Zimbabwe National Human Settlements Policy (ZNHSP) and the goal of Vision 2030 to create an upper middle-class economy through investment in housing, infrastructure,